| Derrica has a great personality and completely sold us over the phone. However, what you talk to over the phone and what you get in real life are two different people. We were told that we were getting someone that was responsible, hard working, and someone that had childcare experience. What we got was someone that did in fact have a bubbly personality, but had little childcare development experience, had very bad living habits, and was irresponsible.
The first red flag should have been her needing us to wire her $250 to complete her papers to get into the US, then we had to pay her full flight here because she had no money at all..second red flag. We agreed that she would pay us back 1/2 of the ticket, along with the $250 per week from her salary. She arrived here as planned.
On the second day of getting here, she asked to use the car to see friends that she knew in the area
third red flag...we stated in our contract that on days the aupair worked, they needed to be in the house by 12:00am. She did not come home until 1:30am. She did not call to say what had happened. The following day she claimed to have fallen alseep at her friends (story she told my husband) and then told me that she was feeling sleepy while driving so she pulled over to the side of the road to take a quick nap. Mind you, the friend only lived 15 minutes away.
Fourth red flag.....2 days later she (a total of 4 days in US) she spent the night on the weekend at her friends house. She called to ask if she could take the car because her friends wanted to show her around. We were stunned that not only 5 days with us, she was already trying to stay out and ask for the car when she should have been learning the routine with the girls. Still...we give the benefit of doubt because she is young and young people are into themselves.
Fifth red flag.......she asked us on the second week of employment if it was ok not to deduct the money she owed us because her mom needed her to send money home to her.
Sixth red and final red flag......I drove the car that we allowed her to drive and noticed ashes on the floor, as well as, the inside of a cigar emptied in the cup holder. As I glanced around the car, I noticed air freshener in the back seat. I went around to the passenger side of the car and found a bud of what I thought was Marijuana. I took the bud into the house and lit it and low and behold....it was the smell of marijuana bold & strong. I just couldn't believe it!!!! I immediately cut off all of her access and when she was asked about it,she made up a story about how she was taking a friend's cousin home and he was smoking in the car etc etc. Well we didn't believe that for one minute. We asked her to leave. We gave her 1 1/2 weeks to figure out some plans.
It was during this time that I discovered how nasty she lived in our home. Prior to that we would never invade her space or privacy. We assumed she followed the rules that we outlined; however she did not. Her room was filthy, she kept cups and food in her room, wore my 6 year old's socks, used my girls hair accessories, and overall not a clean person. It was a huge chore showing her how to keep basic things clean. We believe that she came here with absolutely nothing and was escaping a ton of emotional baggage. We outlined every detaill for her in our contract so there was no excuse for not following the rules and guidelines.
We felt that she has no business trying to take care of anyone's kids because she can't even take care of herself. She would not be a good fit for a clean, organized, structured family. My girls did like her and she never harmed them; however when trust is severed, you don't know what someone is capable of. |
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