My Au Pair Experience

Have you been daydreaming and brainstorming of a way to escape the routine of your ordinary day to day grind? Tired of the same scenery, same faces, same situations? You might be thinking of a quick vacay, or maybe a little backpacking trip, but maybe that won't suffice, it won't quench the thirst for adventure and time away, so, what are your options? Well there's many, and only a few I have tried, but one that I personally have tried and loved, was au pairing.

What is an au pair?

I thought that the term 'Au Pair' was well known to mostly everyone, but sometimes when I say that I was an au pair, people give me the strangest of looks, so I usually just simplify it to 'Nanny'. An au pair is usually a person who's moved abroad to be (in most cases) a live-in nanny to care for someone's children and house while the parent(s) is/are at work or out of the house. The au pair is usually paid a small amount for their responsibilities as well as being provided a place to stay(usually a room in the home) and food to eat. Sometimes the family even provides a car to use to transport the children different places.

My Experience

I was an au pair in Ireland for two different families in the same small town in the southern part of the island. The first family I was with for three months and it was an exceptionally lucky situation because both my friend and I were able to be employed by them. This was so important for us as we wanted to stay together (because we moved to Ireland from Canada together) and couldn't find anyone who would accept two people into their homes, until one day I came across a family who was willing to. This family was offering a live-out living situation and were willing to give me the au-pair position and employ my friend at their family run hotel, it was a perfect scenario. The live-out situation was an apartment in the host-dad's mother's home just across the street from the families home and hotel. The apartment was great for us and in a perfect spot in the town. The first week that we were there, my friend and I as well as our host-mom decided that it would be a good idea if my friend and I switched our responsibilities each week, so one week I was looking after the kids and she was waitressing at the hotel, and vice versa. It was a great way for us to make more money and switch up the routine. A usual day with the kids involved going to the house and cleaning up prior to picking the youngest up from school, then caring for her for about an hour or so before walking a block down to the boys school to pick up the middle child, then having those two just for an hour until the oldest walked home from school. At this point it would be about 3pm and I would ensure that they were all fed, homework was done and then we would play for a couple hours until it was time to make dinner. Sometimes I would make dinner but sometimes the parents came home before it had to be made. Usually the mom would tell me what she wanted made so then I would just make that, or make something I knew that the kids would like (usually pasta). The parents would usually be finished work between 6-7pm and then I was free to leave, and would usually have eaten dinner there with the kids. It was a great gig and the kids were fun to play with, although could be a handful (but they were all under the age of 10 so it's highly reasonable). We moved onto a new au pairing situation after four months with that family, and my friend and I were separated at this point. She went to a lovely family that lived just down the road from the family I was with, and both families lived out in the country, about a ten minute drive from town. We spent the summer with these families, and it was amazing. My family couldn't offer me a weekly 'allowance' but did offer me a place to stay and food to eat, and I only had to mind the kids 1-3 days a week. Also, the cousins of the family needed minding and I would watch them 2 times a week for about 8 hours per day and get payed hourly for it so it worked out just fine. A usual day with this family was extremely simple as all the kids wanted to do was play, play, play! I would make their meals for them and clean up after them as well of course. My friend and I were still close enough to bike to each others houses and we were able to get into town on weekends to see our other friends. 

Where to find a host family:

The places I preferred to browse for host families were either care.com or aupairworld.com. Both are great websites that are used all over the world for people seeking host families and au-pairs. You can create a profile specifying whether you are an au pair or a host family, a bit about yourself, when you're available for and for how long, and then you can find people suitable to your needs and message them and work it out from there! It's a lot easier than people think, but it can still take a bit of time to find the perfect family, so give yourself at least a few months. It all depends on when you're looking to move in, and when the family is looking to host somebody (they may be seeking a replacement so cannot host you until their current au pair is gone). My friend found her family she stayed with during the summer through facebook, as her host-mom had posted in an au pair group about needing an au pair for the summer. Then, this woman was able to connect me with my host-family as they were neighbours and she knew my host-family was seeking help during the summer.

What to look for in a host family:

While seeking a host family, you should be looking for a family (obviously) in your desired area, with the desired amount of children you are willing to care for, and offering the average rate. In Ireland for example, the average rate for an au pair was 100 Euro per week (with food and shelter). A good way to find the average rate is to just click through different profiles of families in your desired area and see what most people are offering and if theres an average between each family. Be skeptical of too little or too much, too little is obviously not that great to begin with, and too much could mean lots of work and lots of hours. As an au pair, you should still have some down-time on your weekdays (usually in the evening) and should normally have weekends off unless the family needs you every now and then or for a couple hours during the weekend. Also make sure that the family seems legit (scams are everywhere nowadays!) and that if you want to be in a city/town that you are not too far from the desired city/town as you may struggle trying to find a way there. Also, some families are looking for au pair's with valid driving licences in that country, so if you apply for that, then you can look for families with that specification and ensure that you have the requirements for your license and if you are not looking for a family that needs a driver then make sure to not apply for those families as somebody with a driving permit is usually required for these families as it is important that somebody can transport the children places. Also be sure that the family speaks the language/languages you speak, this is important obviously for communication with the parents and children. Lots of families look for au pairs who can teach their child/children new languages.

What to expect:

As an au pair, you should expect to have an amazing time away from home immersing yourself in a different culture! The place where you au pair should quickly start to feel like home and your host family should as well! In the town we were living, almost every family had an au pair so it was very easy to make friends as au pairs would meet up every week at the local pub. That is how my friend and I met most of our friends, as well as there was an au pair group chat on WhatsApp that was handy to meet up with fellow au pairs in the area. It is great to find an area with lots of au pairs, but if you cannot, try to get out, join clubs or groups or post into that community's facebook group about being new to the area and wanting to make friends, most people will jump on that opportunity to meet someone from a different country. As an au pair, you shouldn't expect to make a ton of money, basically the money the family provides you with is a good amount of spending money and enough to save up for a weekend trip every now and then. You shouldn't expect to move abroad and work as an au pair as a way to travel frequently or save up for something big like school or a house, it's simply more for experience and personal growth (in my opinion).

Overall, my time spent as an au pair in Ireland was the best way for me to fulfill my goal of immersing myself into a community, meeting new friends, and becoming a part of a new family. I truly feel that the small sea-side town I spent 6 months in has become a new home for me and I wouldn't change a thing about my experience au pairing abroad. If you're still unsure about au pairing there are just a few simple questions to ask yourself to determine if its for you; Do you like kids? Are you willing to move abroad? And are you willing to live/work for a family? If you answered yes to these questions, get searching then, au pair!