Quick facts:
A Lot of you probably never heard of au pairs. Who is an au pair? The title comes from a French term, which means "equal to", the au pair is supposed to become a member of the family and take care of children. In my case, being part of an American family.
Au pairs are under government restrictions, such as age: 18-26, not having children, no criminal background, having a GED, driver license and know English at least on a communicative base and spend one year with an American family
Our primary duties are taking care of the children, such as waking them up, getting them ready for school, taking them to/from school, helping with homework, taking them to the park and after-school activities, preparing light meals and clean up after meals, doing children's laundry and ironing their clothes, keep neat and tidy children's room and playroom.
Reality:
What is it really like to be an au pair?
Honestly, the expectations and reality is almost every time different. A lot of young girls leave their families, friends even some of them boyfriends behind. Everyone you ever know, is thousands of miles away. Every little thing you ever knew , your home, pets and city is left behind. Every little thingie, you wouldn't even notice before it could be something meaningful, you miss it so much you can't even think. But it is not true, all what you are really left with is thinking. Soooo much thinking that your head even starts to hurt. With thousand times looking back at what you have left behind and you will not able to see for a year (and I still think it is a small number, because it gets bigger every day), it is really painful and you can't even bare a thought about another 12 months to suffer from this huge and unbearable mental pain. And you keep thinking, why have I decided to come here, what was I thinking? Was I crazy? Didn't I see I couldn't do this? 12 months without my family and friends and my biggest love,my little dog Charlie. Who has been there with me, in my ups and downs for 10 years. The one, who didn't let me down, not even once? How could I leave him? Maybe, I was selfish a bit. I thought there is a big world out there waiting for me to see many wonderful places that world has to offer.
I was at orientation to be trained with other girls from every country that you could possibly think of, 182 new au pairs arrived on the same day as me. 22 of august (well,I came on 23, because my flight was cancelled, but never mind). The orientation is everyone week in summer months, and possibly every 2 weeks in other months. So could you possibly think how many au pairs are here? And there is a lot of other agencies offering to be an au pair in the US.
I think au pairs are very brave girls. They are trying their best, they travel here from long distances, leaving everything behind, going to live in a different country, where is everything different, streets, cars, food,people, language...and they are going to live with absolute strangers and raise their kids. Well,you think it has to be tough, but it is even tougher than you could imagine.
But at the end, like every sailor knows that even after a long time experiencing a storm at the sea, eventually everything must calm down and sun comes up.
Au pairs are doing a pretty hard job and it is remarkable. Perhaps, when you are reading this article, one of the au pairs is your friend, cousin, your daughter or even you.
