If you’ve clicked on this post you’re either curious about how to get into au pairing and my experiences with the job or you’re just plain nosey and have no clue what au pairing is. Had you mentioned it to me about a year ago I would have been the latter in the previous statement, I genuinely had no clue what au pairing was until all of my desperate searches into finding a way to move out of my family house had failed and the idea of au pairing for brought up in conversation.
Taking a gap year and being stuck in the same town that I had grown to see as such a mundane place was the worst thing imaginable for me. I wanted to travel, or at least just get out of there. Travelling, however, costs money and my little job wasn’t quite going to cover the expenses of seeing the world. I had two choices - the first being to live at home for about four months, find a new job and spend every waking hour working to be able to afford to travel later on in the year; the other being to find a way of working abroad to allow me to get out of my town and still be able to afford to live.
This is why au pairing was so ideal for me, it allowed me to escape my hometown, see the world, and have a steady and reliable income.
The basic idea behind au pairing is that you are a live in nanny (think Nanny McPhee but without the terribly behaved children) and are paid to look after children, you get free board with the family that you work for and all of your food is paid for. My friend put it best when he said it is basically like I get paid to be the kids older sister. It’s such a great way to be able live and work abroad and I didn’t realise quite how many people did it until I moved over and found au pair friends from all over the world.
When I was applying for jobs I literally applied for the broadest range of countries including America, Australia, Italy and The Netherlands. However after falling in love with the Dutch culture and knowing that I had friends and a support system in Holland (which was also close enough for me to be able to afford to head home in school holidays when I’m not needed and if anything happened to family) I had my heart set on moving to Amsterdam.
My daily routine is pretty simple and laid back, especially because the kids I look after are ten and twelve meaning they are rather self sufficient but just need someone there to give them a helping hand every now and then. A regular day of work is waking up and taking the youngest child to school, I will then come home and have the day to myself until 3pm when I need to pick him up. I take him to any clubs he has and prepare dinner twice a week and occasionally babysit.
Before I wrote this post I posted on twitter to see if any of you guys had questions about au pairing, what it entails and how I got my job. I thought I would just do a little Q&A section in this post explaining it all in a more detailed manner, so here goes.
How many hours do you work a week and how much money do you earn?
You’ll find each country has different laws and regulations around pay and work hours for au pairs, for example in The Netherlands you can’t work more than 8 hours a day, have to have 2 days off a week and your family cannot pay you any more than €340 a month. Pay is also called ‘pocket money’ to avoid getting taxed on it which is strange but cool. I have friends who au pair in England and earn about £150 a week. I’m also currently looking at Australia to au pair in for the future where you earn about $200/250 a week so really it varies with where you’re working and the laws around it.
Are you able to fit au pairing in with your studies?
As I have mentioned in this post, I am on a gap year meaning that I’m not currently studying anything - though while au pairing my host family have given me the option to take evening classes in something if I am interested. This again depends on the family and the agreements you come to in your contract and interview period. I don’t think you would however be able to do a degree or something while working here, it is very much something you do while not in education.
How did you find your family you work for?
Honestly, I just googled how to be an au pair and the site aupairworld.com came up, I made a free account and picked where I wanted to be in the world. I gave some details about me and the lifestyle I live and then began to match with families, have conversations with them and went through a skype interview period. This took a few weeks for me to find the one family that I was most comfortable around and that I felt fit me.
Do you live with the people you work for?
Yes! I live in the attic and have my own personal space which is ideal, it give some time to escape once my role is over for the day. I love my room and the way it is decorated which makes it just feel homely and safe.
Are you Dorota?
My friend who is currently watching Gossip Girl keeps asking me this in an attempt to understand what au pairing is. I am not Dorota, I am Meg. Dorota is a maid and I’m a nanny.
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