Au pair life
The au pair program enables you to participate in an international cultural program, and in return you are expected to help your hostfamily: your assistance extends to 30 hours per week (5 to 6 hours per day). Your tasks can be 1) to care for the children: for example to prepare small meals, to take the children to the kindergarten or to school, to play with them, to go for a walk with them, to put babies nappies on, and so on, 2) to fulfil light household duties: for example to tidy up the child’s room, to vacuum, to go shopping, to wash the dishes, to iron, and so on. But bear in mind: the day's course varies with different families. Every Au Pair has individual tasks and working hours that depend for example on the age and the number of the children or on the parents' working hours. In the following you find the descriptions of two Au Pairs' experiences.
Michelle:
In the morning I wake up Constantin and Maxime. Before breakfast I help them to prepare for leaving the house at 8 a.m. in order to take the bus to school. After the parents have left for work (the mother works part-time) I tidy up, clean the children's rooms and prepare a small meal for Constantin and Maxime who return at noon. Sometimes my host mother is already back at home at that time, so that we can have lunch together. The children leave again in the early afternoon. I use the spare time to attend my language course. I take the bus for going there. After the course I do the homework and prepare for the next lesson. When the children return at home I help them to do their homework. After that we play together until it is time for supper. If the parents stay at home they give me the evening off. Otherwise I stay with the children until they fall asleep and spend the remaining time in the living room or in my own room watching TV, reading books, writing letters,...as the family lives an hour away from the city centre and the bus goes only until 10 p.m."
Hetta:
"The first few weeks were a bit exhausting. I was confronted with a lot of new things: cooking, putting nappies on and so on. But I got used to it in the course of time and felt very adult and independent after having coped with all these things.
My working hours varied a lot as my host mother, Andrea, sometimes worked outside her office and had to go away on business for some days. During these days there was a lot of work for me but my host father also took on some household duties. And anyway I got an additional day off during the following weeks. I mostly did the housework in the morning: I cleared up the rooms, watered the plants, washed the children's wear and at the same time had an eye on Kevin. When Andrea was at home as well, we did the work together. In the afternoon I often played with Kevin or we did some walks...During my spare time I attended a language course in the city centre where I got to know quite a lot of other Au Pairs. As I know the Au Pair relation from personal experience I would like to give some pieces of advice to future Au Pairs: The most important thing is a good relation to your host parents. I have found that even if it might be difficult in the beginning you should be frank with them. It is better to talk about problems or misunderstandings at once than to postpone them. The beginning might sometimes be hard but there is no other possibility than to stand it. The experience you are able to gain as an Au Pair is really unique! After my stay abroad I somehow had the impression of being more mature in comparison to other people of my age."