An au pair is a young foreign person who works for and lives as part of a host family. Very
often an au pair becomes a ‘big sister’ within a host family and will usually eat meals with
the family and join in many of the family activities and outings.
WHAT IS AN AU PAIR?
An au pair is a young foreign person who works for and lives as part of a host family. Very
often an au pair becomes a ‘big sister’ within a host family and will usually eat meals with
the family and join in many of the family activities and outings.
Au pairs travel to another country to improve their foreign language skills and to gain a new
cultural experience. An au pair will take on a share of the day-to-day duties of the family in
exchange for board and pocket money.
As you will be living with your host family is very important to discuss and agree your duties
and responsibilities with them from the very beginning. An au pair often decides to accept
or turn down an offer based on the duties that the host family expects of her.
An au pair is expected to help out with the day-to-day running of the household but her
main responsibility is to help with the kids.
Below are some of the duties that you may be asked to carry out by your host family.
Getting the children ready for the day including washing and dressing them
Bringing the children to and from school
Bringing the children to after-school activities
Helping them with their homework
Playing games and doing activities such as painting, baking, etc. with the children
Doing a small amount of grocery shopping
Preparing the children’s snacks and light meals and feeding them
Light housework such as tidying, cleaning, hoovering, emptying the dishwasher, etc.
Each family is individual and will have different working requirements of their au pair. It is
important that a working schedule be agreed from the very beginning so that no
misunderstandings occur.
Your working schedule must be arranged so that you can also attend language classes in
your free time. You cannot be asked to work at the times of your language classes.
As an au pair you can expect to:
Work up to around 25 - 35 hours per week
Do two evenings of babysitting per week (with a maximum of one of these to be at
the week-end)
Have one full day and 2 half days off or 2 full days off per week and one full weekend
off per month (from Friday evening to Monday morning).
Have 5 free evenings per week
Get paid holidays each year
Working hours and paid holidays vary from country to country.
HOW CAN I INCREASE MY CHANCES OF FINDING A FAMILY?
Look for a good Au Pair company to help you to find a perfect host family and to give you
full support during your experience.
Always write your profile in the language of the country in which you want to be an au pair.
Always add a minimum of 1 photo to your profile, with children if possible.
Add as much information about yourself as possible including: why you want to be an au
pair, your childcare experience, your educational background, what you will do when you
finish being an au pair, what family you have including brothers and sister and your hobbies.
If you do not have childcare experience, try to get some childcare experience before looking
for an au pairing position.
Ideally you should have intermediate level of language of the country you are going to. If
you do not have an intermediate level of the language, it is worth attending classes until you
reach this stage.
If you smoke this is a good time to give up smoking. Non-smoking au pairs have a much
greater chance of finding a family than those who do smoke.
Keep an open mind. The more open you are to the location of a host family, the ages of the
children, the number of children etc. the more likely you are to find a family.