If you or your partner works shifts, the costs for childcare can quickly mount up. With a live-in nanny or au pair, you know someone trusted will be in your home all the time.

An au pair offers flexible live-in care for busy parents and even those who work shifts and irregular hours, maybe in catering, hotels, bars or in emergency services such as police, nurses and doctors.

Most au pairs are happy to do extra babysitting and work some weekends in return for other time off or extra pay. Au pairs are young people from overseas, mainly Western Europe, who come to Australia to experience the culture and improve their English in the process. With school age children in particular, the extra pair of hands can be just the help you need, doing things like the school run, help with homework and at mealtimes and simply being there at night if you need to work late.