About me:

49 year old Male from Dublin, Ireland I am a father of 4 young boys aged 1, 4, 7, and 10 years. We are from Dublin Ireland. When my wife had to go back to work full time we were in crisis - who will look after our precious baby number 4? We decided that a babysitter would be the best for us.

We reviewed the whole child minding situation and after much debate decided that a caregiver from abroad would be best for us. We were so green on this topic we didn't know where to begin.

My wife and I huddled around our laptop and searched world wide web for caregivers. We were simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of websites related to ‘babysitting’. We focused in on a few but were not hugely impressed.

Following further extensive research and discussions with parents who had the same experience it began to emerge that visamate was the site of choice for most of these parents and this is what we focused in on.

Marta from Monaco became a great part of our family. She had just finished a teaching course and needed to perfect her English. Marta was a warm friendly young woman and quickly became almost an extension of our family – she turned out to be brilliant. Her key role when she arrived was to look after our youngest child, Harry, who was 5 months.

The other 3 boys were in school as was my wife until their return at 15:00 hours. Marta worked from 8 am to 3pm, 5 days a week and babysat on average once a week – but would do twice if required as this is what we had agreed in advance. She fitted in perfectly and all the boys loved her as did we. She became part of the family. She would just blend in and even did house chores without being asked. She also felt very relaxed and at home.

She was so bubbly and good humored. Her friends from Monaco came to visit and stayed with us as did her Mum by the way who had not a word of English. Our kids were inconsolable at the idea of Marta leaving us

She ended up staying for 10 months and our youngest Harry grew up with her which was a very special time for her to experience his first words and first steps.

She eventually had to leave us as she got another job in France. The drop off to the airport was full of tears the boys were inconsolable. We still Skype her every fortnight so Harry can say Hi and my wife is constantly on Whattsapp to her and her mother.

We would love to host again.