I tried to avoid posting much about my life as an Au-Pair this year, due to confidentiality, respect and all that jazz, but I've finally decided to reflect upon my experience now that I've had about a 3 week break, and Au-Pair life is possibly not in my foreseeable future.
In my 11 months of Au-Pair life, I've worked with a great family, and a less great bad family. I've had good days where I didn't want to say goodnight; and I've had days when at 8pm, I closed my door, put in earplugs and got into bed.
I learned a lot in the past 11 months about au-pairing. I've learned lots about raising children (specifically girls), and about working with others, especially (abuelos) grandparents. I've learned lots of new vocabulary (mainly words pertaining to parks) and even got some grammar lessons from a 5 year old, which wasn't always easy to swallow.
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I've learned to take my time. To let kids be independent, to let them try, and to not jump right in and say "let me help!" Because they need to develop themselves, and they CAN do it! I've learned that its ok if kids want to stand back and observe sometimes, and to let them pick leaves and flowers and whatever else they find along the way to or from the swimming pool.
As an Au-Pair, my job was pretty simple and fair. I prepared a healthy snack for my two lovely little ladies, always fruit, maybe some yogurt, and on days we ventured the 5 km to the pool, a bocadillo for extra energy. I learned that one child was hungry the minute I picked her up from school (hungry hippo) and the other didn't want anything to do with snack, unless it was something she probably shouldn't be eating (maybe an occasional 'surprise' pancake, palmera or other sugary sweet) I learned that one only wanted Pineapple juice, and dont bother bringing juice for the other.
Then I went to pick the 2-3 year old up from her guardaria. From there, her and I (and her stroller) packed with jackets, scarves, water and snacks walked about 20 minutes to get to the older girls' school. There, we maybe ate snack and went to the park, or went to the even further away pool.
After the afternoons activities we returned home where I was a stickler for cleanliness. "Shoes, Slippers, Hands!" was a phrase I repeated numerous times within the first 15 minutes of arriving at the house. Then we did some homework, followed by arts and crafts, drawing, playdough, ipad, etc etc.
I worked monday through thursday for the family, from 3:45pm until 8pm, or until the parents arrived home from work. Some nights I gave the girls dinner and put them to bed, but rarely.
To anyone who is thinking of becoming an Au Pair, it is a big decision. Heres some advice for anyone considering it:
*You must be very careful when choosing a family, make sure you first decide what you expect out of the experience, and also make sure you can identify qualities of your personality and your needs. For instance, I was very independent. I was 24-25 as an au-pair. I wanted the freedom to come and go as I please, to have my own life separate from my life at "home". I wanted my space and I wanted trust and respect. I had to find a family that could provide me with that. This is the most valuable piece of information I can provide for you.
*Make sure you make things very clear: if you are willing to work the occasional night, how much notice you want, how often you are willing to do that, etc.
*Consider the accommodation offered. Do you have your own bathroom? Your own bedroom? Will people be going in and out of your room?
*Discuss with the family their expectations about snacks, time spent watching TV, if they want formal english lessons, time spent reading etc
*Communicate! Discuss how the children behaved, what you did that day, any questions, any thing teachers said at school, notes sent home etc. The parents are not there with their children all afternoon and they want to be kept informed on the days activities so they can discuss them with the children later. Also if there is some sort of problem they can talk about it with their child later, in hope of avoiding any future problems.
*Teach children to be independent. Have them dress themselves, put the straw in their juicebox, put on their hats and gloves, tie their own shoes, clean up their messes, turn off lights, wash their hands... children can do just about anything we can do, and its fantastic to watch them grow into little adults!
*Have fun! Do fun activities that are hands on! Dance! Make cookies! Do projects! Get Messy! Change it up! Kids need routine but every once in a while a little spice goes a long way!
Some of our favorite activities were:
*Baking and decorating cookies
*Painting (get out the smocks!)
*Making bracelets
*Making random things out of popsicle sticks, pom poms, pipe cleaners and googly eyes!
*Making play dough
*Exploring nature
*Football day
*Popcorn day
*Hot Cocoa and Marshmallow rainy cold days
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