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For qualified childcarers.... meet our great APEX families
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Family 1
Our family is a family of four. We have
two daughters, aged 5 and 7 who are both in elementary school. Our younger daughter
has two half days of school and three full days. Our eldest daughter is in school
5 full days until 3pm. Both girls do lots of after school activities and they
get along wonderfully with each other. In addition to the children we have large,
lovely dog and cat. They are an important part of our family.
My husband
is an educator and is currently teaching ninth grade English in a High School. He
has been teaching or working as an administrator for the past 17 years. He works
full time, goes to work early in the morning and often works at home in the evening as well.
I now work part time as an art teacher but my primary role is as a mother and homemaker.
My greatest need for help as a mother is between the hours of 3:00pm and 9:00pm when my kids
are doing homework, having after school activities, having dinner and settling down for bedtime. This is the primary reason I am now considering an au pair. I
currently employ a housekeeper 4 days per week.
We’re a happy, active, well-rounded family. Family
is the most important thing in our lives. We love to be with our children –
teaching them, playing with them and learning from them. We are looking for an
intelligent au pair who would also enrich our children’s lives. We would
need someone who was comfortable with animals, able to drive and travel with us. The
ideal person is responsible, trustworthy, organized and easy to be around. I
think we could offer the right au pair a wonderful experience as well.
Family 2
Our family is currently made up
of three, with a fourth member on the ay.
Our daughter is 2 years old and we’re expecting our second child in early April. We couldn’t be more excited about our new addition. Both my wife and myself are attorneys, who work for wonderful firms with very civil hours in New York City. Our jobs seldom require a late night’s work and provide us with plenty of time
for activities, meals and family time.
My daughter spends her days playing, working with arts and crafts and singing. We generally have her enrolled in at least one (but not more than two) local classes that meet once a week. She is a very well behaved, social child who loves spending time outside in the fresh
air. While inside she loves to color and read books. For our children, our goal is to raise well-balanced, moral and ethical children, who have a strong sense
of themselves and their place in the world. We believe in verbal discipline,
utilizing time-outs when necessary.
Our family activities include long walks, traveling
and just spending time together. Family is our number one priority. We are looking for an au pair to join our family and to help us care for our children during the week,
while we are away at work. We look forward to spending time with the au pair
on the weekends also, as the au pair learns about American culture and tradition. When
the au pair chooses to spend time on her own, it is important to note that we are very close to great shopping in the town
of Greenwich and are a short train ride away from New York City, where there is another world to explore. We are young, fun and energetic and cannot wait to welcome the right au pair into our family.
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Family 3
We have a wonderful 14-month daughter who is pure joy. We have had wonderful luck and relationships with the individuals who have cared for our daughter. I am home on maternity leave at the moment as our second daughter has just been born
and am off work for 3 months but will be returning to work on a ‘part time’ schedule in early February. The hours that we will both be out of the hours will likely be Monday through Friday 8:00am to 4:30 or
5:00pm.
We recently bought a four-bedroom town home and have additional room on the bottom floors
of our home that we think would be perfect for a guest in our home. We think
it would be very beneficial to our daughters to have someone stay in the home who would be with them during the day. We would love to share our home and a small piece of our family life with someone
from another part of the world. We also think it is important for our children
to have close relationships with people from other parts of the world.
We think that the idea relationship with an au pair would be one in which they are a part
of our family but in which the individual also has the time and interest in a social life of their own. We would be very welcoming of an au pair in our home but would respect their desires to spend time seeing
the area, other parts of the country and their friends while they are here.
Our daughter currently has a fairly routine schedule.
She wakes up at 8:00am, eats breakfast, plays some games and if it is nice goes outside for a bit in the morning. Her favourite activity is reading books. She
currently takes two naps but is moving to onto one. However, by the time an au
pair arrives she will be a few months older and I’m sure that she’ll be interested in some additional activities
such as more organized play, games and arts and crafts. Our second daughter will
only be a few months old at the time. We feel that a great deal of one to one
interaction is very important. We also would like to have someone who will start
reading with her at a young age.
We may enrol our eldest in a preschool a couple of days a week for the morning hours. She is very, very social and loves to interact with children. The qualities that are most important to us in an au pair are a love of infants and children and a passion
for the time spent with them, maturity, a positive nature and general good heart. We
are both fairly active and social people. However, it is not important to us
that an au pair share our specific interests, other than our interest in our children.
That is the most important attribute.
Family 4
Hi, we have two small children ages
2 years and 14 months. We love spending time with our children but also love
practising medicine (we are both physicians). Since the birth of our children
I have been working part-time. In a couple of months I plan to increase my time
at work and we will need help meeting the needs of our young children. Our children
bring us immense joy and continue to amuse and amaze us on a daily basis. Currently,
our son attends a co-operative day care on Monday and Tuesdays while a babysitter who used to run pre-school watches our daughter. On the other days of the week the children spend their time with my husband or me. We live in an are of Seattle near a big park and the zoo, which provide opportunities
for daily adventures. When it rains, which it is know to do in Seattle, we like
to spend time at the Pacific Science Center or public library. We also enjoy
weekly gymnastics and music classes.
While we make the transition to me working more outside of the home, we are looking for a
childcare provider who is energetic, even-tempered and thoughtful about his/her interactions with our children. Our children are quite close in age, which can occasionally make for hectic times. Though we are clearly biased, our son is a wonderful and loving toddler who responds to his younger sister
with incredible maturity and kindness. He is very curious and quick to figure
out how things work. Our daughter’s personality is evolving daily. She is quick to laugh and loves to cuddle. She
says a few words and also knows several signs, which help her get what she needs. She
adores playing with her baby dolls and reading books.
We love spending time with our children and know
that you will too. We hope to find someone who wants to be treated as part of
our family and, in exchange, hope to offer a comfortable home and working environment.
Family 5
We welcome this opportunity to open
our home to an au pair. Although small, our family is extremely important to
us. Household members are the two of us (Mom and Dad), our dog and our unnamed
baby boy due in February 2007. We also have a close-knit extended family in St
Louis, including my wife’s father, brother and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
Our life revolves around work, community involvement, exercising and a love of travelling
and cultural activities. We believe in the importance of health and fitness. We often cook at home and we belong to twp gyms, each within 10 minutes of our home. We work out several times a week and take walks together at night with our dog if
the weather permits. My wife is an avid runner.
Our passion is traveling and in the past few years we have been to 40 countries. From Bolivia to Peru to Morocco to Europe to Southern Africa and Asia we have seen and done amazing things! We’re extremely open to learning about new cultures and our travels allow ourselves
to immerse ourselves in the culture of the country we are visiting. Traveling
gives us a unique opportunity to be together, to learn about the world and to see what occurs beyond our borders. We are always looking for our next adventure. In addition,
as part of our travels we love to eat good food, go to museums and exhibits and see as much theatre as possible.
Our neighborhood is amazingly family friendly. We
have lived in our home for a year and a half. It’s two stories with four
bedrooms, three full bathroom and two half bathrooms and partially finished basement.
There are many other children in our neighborhood under the age of 5. Families
are always outside playing and walking, and we really do know our neighbors. Within
a ten minute walk or drive from our home are parks, restaurants, shops, museums and a zoo.
Our location is ideal for giving an au pair a wonderful learning, social and cultural experience. We’re laid back and friendly. We frequently have dinner
parties and entertain in our home. Because we don’t have a child yet we
can’t outline the exact rules we want an au pair to follow. As a member
of our household we would hope the au pair will view our home as hers and therefore take part in household activities. We’re always willing to talk out problems, listens to suggestions and work together. We’d be happy to welcome the au pair’s family for visit.
Several years ago we met an au pair while on honeymoon
and hearing about her experience and how she felt about the child she cared for, helped us decide that this is an opportunity
we would welcome. We want a true cultural experience for our baby and ourselves. In opening our home, we hope our au pair will take advantage of the many wonderful
opportunities in the area and our family and while doing so she will enrich both our lives and the life of our child.
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