Choose the right family
The usual way to find out which are the families to choose from is when they contact you and let you know of their interest in you. On a growing trend but less practiced is when the Au Pair contacts the family.
It doesn’t matter the way you got your choices. What it matters is that you carefully make your choice. When choosing a family you should consider multiple factors so please have a look below and judge for yourself.
How big is the family and how many children you’ll take care of
Ex. A 7 members family but you’ll take care of 1 child but you’ll have to cook dinner for 7 plus yourself would be more work than taking care of two kids
What will be your duties? Are they clearly specified?
“Clean the house once a week” can be much easier than “Keep the house clean and tidy” when you’ve got two very messy kids. It could prove tricky the “some babysitting” expression used by families. You should know exactly what your duties are and how many hours that means. A good family will say 25 hours to you but will expect 24 from you but not to say 25 and wait for you to work 30.
Your “pocket money”
How much you’ll get for your job. If you’ll feel underpaid that will create a frustration overtime so the best thing is to calculate an average of what Au Pairs get in that country per hour and multiply it to yours and see if is alright. You have to take into account all the aspects of your life there. If you get a car in UK on top of 55 pounds/25 hours of work could equal to you if you go to a family that doesn’t provide a car but pays 65 pounds/25 hours. So think about it decide that if you are okay with that.
Is the cleaning a general effort or it is you that will have to take care of everything
If you’ll clean the house but everybody else won’t care then that house won’t be clean. That is alright if the family is not obsessed with cleaning but if they are but they don’t want to clean after themselves it can prove very frustrating – off course this is fine if they pay you enough money. Remember – give and take.
The family’s location.
Imagine that you like animals very much and instead of a farm you’ll find a family living in the middle of London. Don’t say yes to a family that you don’t like the idea were they live. In the same time Germany doesn’t mean Berlin and England doesn’t mean London. There are so many areas were you could go so don’t limit yourself to the capital city just because you’ve heard about it.
Other Au Pairs in the area?
This is the fun. Families are alright but you need social live and you’ll easier get it from other young people in the same situation like you. At the end of the week you can meet and have your bit of fun – you’ve worked a week for that :D
Pets
Do you like animals? If you don’t like picking after dogs then don’t choose a family that requires that. Don’t lie about it because sooner or later that dog will come to lick you and the family will find out.
Your free time is your free time
There are some families that have very strict rules. You are in their house and you follow the rules. You break the rules and they’ll push you out. Now for sure if you’ll go to bed at 3 o’clock in the evening then you won’t be able to provide good childcare so some rules have a reason. But if the family will ask you to be back home at 9 o’clock on a Friday night in your free time than you’ve got to deal with freaks. Ask them about it and if they are like that just avoid them.
The usual way to find out which are the families to choose from is when they contact you and let you know of their interest in you. On a growing trend but less practiced is when the Au Pair contacts the family.
It doesn’t matter the way you got your choices. What it matters is that you carefully make your choice. When choosing a family you should consider multiple factors so please have a look below and judge for yourself.
How big is the family and how many children you’ll take care of
Ex. A 7 members family but you’ll take care of 1 child but you’ll have to cook dinner for 7 plus yourself would be more work than taking care of two kids
What will be your duties? Are they clearly specified?
“Clean the house once a week” can be much easier than “Keep the house clean and tidy” when you’ve got two very messy kids. It could prove tricky the “some babysitting” expression used by families. You should know exactly what your duties are and how many hours that means. A good family will say 25 hours to you but will expect 24 from you but not to say 25 and wait for you to work 30.
Your “pocket money”
How much you’ll get for your job. If you’ll feel underpaid that will create a frustration overtime so the best thing is to calculate an average of what Au Pairs get in that country per hour and multiply it to yours and see if is alright. You have to take into account all the aspects of your life there. If you get a car in UK on top of 55 pounds/25 hours of work could equal to you if you go to a family that doesn’t provide a car but pays 65 pounds/25 hours. So think about it decide that if you are okay with that.
Is the cleaning a general effort or it is you that will have to take care of everything
If you’ll clean the house but everybody else won’t care then that house won’t be clean. That is alright if the family is not obsessed with cleaning but if they are but they don’t want to clean after themselves it can prove very frustrating – off course this is fine if they pay you enough money. Remember – give and take.
The family’s location.
Imagine that you like animals very much and instead of a farm you’ll find a family living in the middle of London. Don’t say yes to a family that you don’t like the idea were they live. In the same time Germany doesn’t mean Berlin and England doesn’t mean London. There are so many areas were you could go so don’t limit yourself to the capital city just because you’ve heard about it.
Other Au Pairs in the area?
This is the fun. Families are alright but you need social live and you’ll easier get it from other young people in the same situation like you. At the end of the week you can meet and have your bit of fun – you’ve worked a week for that :D
Pets
Do you like animals? If you don’t like picking after dogs then don’t choose a family that requires that. Don’t lie about it because sooner or later that dog will come to lick you and the family will find out.
Your free time is your free time
There are some families that have very strict rules. You are in their house and you follow the rules. You break the rules and they’ll push you out. Now for sure if you’ll go to bed at 3 o’clock in the evening then you won’t be able to provide good childcare so some rules have a reason. But if the family will ask you to be back home at 9 o’clock on a Friday night in your free time than you’ve got to deal with freaks. Ask them about it and if they are like that just avoid them.
