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'But What Of Our Au Pairs!' Fox's Ainsley Earhardt Wonders Of Trump's Immigration Ban
Leopards, faces, etc.
The thing about Fox News, as compared to other cable news stations, is that it is for the regular people. Not the "coastal elites." It's why they hire guys like Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, stepson of a simple country TV dinner heiress, to talk about how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, daughter of a very fancy, highfalutin house cleaner/school bus driver, is a "child of privilege." They want hosts who really "get" what the average American is going through.
Hosts like Ainsley Earhardt of Fox & Friends, who — despite working for a network that has spent the last several years screaming that we need to stop all immigration and get rid of all those dang foreigners — had the courage to step up this morning and take a stand for the little guy. No, not the Dreamers, not the asylum-seekers — the parents who need live-in au pairs to take care of their children . You know, like so many regular, every day people have. Totally relatable problem there.
Ainsley Earhardt is concerned about Trump's temporary immigration ban because her au pair is an immigrant: "Many fa… https://t.co/H4S42YyWFt
— Bobby Lewis (@Bobby Lewis) 1587467548.0
Earhardt said:
Many families here, including mine, we have au pairs. And we rely on them. I go to work at three-o'clock in the morning, so I need here there, and I need her in my house so that she can help me with my daughter. So, many families rely on childcare from other countries. These au pairs come here on work VISAs, they have to go back to those country to get their VISAs renewed, and we've been talking in my house about how that's gonna happen. So these are all things, these are questions that we have, that hopefully the President will roll out a plan and we'll all be informed on how this is going to affect all of our lives.
Ah, yes. All of our lives.
Clearly, when Fox hosts pictured an immigration ban happening — oh, yes, Trump announced an immigration ban — they saw it as a thing that would not affect their lives or the lives of their European household staff in a way that would inconvenience them.
There are, for the record, only about 17,500 au pairs in the United States. So not really a thing a lot of families have, although it does cost less to have an au pair than it does to have a live-in nanny. In fact, it costs less than minimum wage to have an au pair in most states (not Massachusetts, where au pairs recently won the right to get paid that). Au pairs usually get about $195 a week, plus room and board and $500 to go towards language lessons and education. There's also, just for the record, a whole lot of abuse in that system. Shockingly enough, young people, on their own in a foreign country, away from their families and being live-in-servants to a family here, often get taken advantage of.
While Ms. Earnhardt is very concerned about her ability and the ability of others like her to have affordable childcare, she is appalled by the idea that anyone else would want such a thing. Back in 2016, she and her fellow Fox & Friends co-hosts scoffed at Hillary Clinton's childcare plan as some kind of assault on their liberty.
Via Media Matters :
Guest John Stossel joined Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade to evaluate the presidential nominees on a "liberty-meter." Stossel awarded Clinton "a 1, the worst, lowest score we can give," for her spending plans, citing her proposals related to child care and college affordability. Stossel claimed that "we're going broke" while Clinton's proposals involve "free stuff, more stuff." Earhardt responded, "Who's going to pay for that?" to which Stossel replied, "Beats me."
Of course, it's not as if there are other parents out there who have to get up to go to work at 3 a.m. who don't have au pairs but also need childcare. That would just be silly.
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'But What Of Our Au Pairs!' Fox's Ainsley Earhardt Wonders Of Trump's Immigration Ban
We had au pair to take care of our daughter: au pair of working parents who struggled with their schedules and money to make it work.
My wife's college roomie lived in MA, was a concert violinist and married to a lawyer, and they had an au pair (this was, I dunno, 15 years ago? at least?) and that was the first time I'd ever heard of the term. I thought it sounded pretty damn high-end, especially as we were driving close to 100 miles a day going from our house, then south to my mom's, then north to the far side of the next town to our jobs, and then back again in the evening because it was still cheaper than paying for daycare. Sadly, my mom was getting pretty on in years by that point and couldn't keep watching our kid for us, so eventually he went into daycare anyway. Of course, by that time the car had been prematurely aged by all the driving (not to mention the 900-mile round trips to Asheville 3-4 times a year to her family) so not only did we have daycare expenses, but more frequent repair bills. Good times, good times.