Family 1

Meeting and getting to know people from different cultures is very important to us, and it’s been an important part of our lives as a family. This will be our seventh year in the Au Pair in America program, and we’ve enjoyed having people from around the world share our home. Prior to having children, we traveled together to France, Belgium, England, Japan, Hong Kong and the Caribbean. We now live in Chicago; the third largest city in the United States. One of the best things about Chicago is the many parks and museums. Our home is a five- minute walk to the beach on the lake and the city’s Zoo. Tennis courts and a golf driving range are less that one kilometer away from our home.

Our daughter is 9 and our son is 6 years old. Both attend school five days a week, which allows us to set a regular schedule for you and have a break each day when they are both in school. We both work, so the children are very comfortable having us come and go and being with other people. It’s our hope that you will become like a favorite aunt or big sister, and that you will build a bond with the children and help them to develop and grow.

The children love the park and lakefront, and we hope that you will too. When the weather is good, the children go out after school. While the playgrounds in the park are the center of their outdoor world, there are special children’s activities at the Zoo, the Nature Museum and in the park’s cultural center. Education is something we value highly. A love of learning is one of the most important things we hope to pass along to the children. We try to make it part of our day with them, and hope that you will be an enthusiastic participant in their learning experiences, as well as in the classes you wish to take. We always plan to make sure our au pair has time to herself and get to experience the city, as free time is as important as being part of our family. In our area of the city there are also plenty of other au pairs to meet and get together with, and plenty of opportunities to enjoy yourself when you are not with us.

Most of your responsibilities are based on the children and their schedule. The biggest task is in the morning getting ready for the school day. After school time includes some planned activities for the children, as well as making sure they do their school assignments. You’ll need to do the kids’ laundry and help them keep their room clean and orderly. We don’t expect you to clean any other part of the home. You’ll need to make lunch for yourself seeing as we won’t be around, but you are welcome to join us for dinner in the evenings. You may even want to teach us about foods from your home country.

We expect to keep a regular schedule so you can plan your personal time. We look forward to greeting you as the new addition to our family soon.

Family 2

We have been part of the Au Pair in America program for many years now and have had the pleasure of inviting five au pairs into our home. We have grown very attached to each of them and had a great time getting to know them. We continue to keep in close contact with each of them in their home country and are looking forward to inviting our sixth au pair into our home.

We live in a large house in California, which is a suburb of San Francisco. Our community is mostly one of residences, but is flush with outstanding restaurants and shopping in the downtown area. San Francisco is a short train ride away, and offers big city entertainment, site seeing and fun. The bay area is one of the most visited areas is the world due to it’s beauty, restaurants, history and views. Not far from San Francisco are Carmel and Monterey. If you like skiing, Lake Tahoe is about five hours away.

I work in San Francisco’s financial district and my husband owns a martial arts training studio in California. Our daughter is 6 years old and our son is 7. We’re hiring an au pair to play, teach, educate, discipline and keep them safe while we are at work. There is a very tight network of Au Pairs in our area that keep in close contact with each other and see each other often. There’ll be no shortage of friends for you to make! Our daughter is a very bright, active child with a great disposition and personality. She is great with new people and becomes attached relatively quickly. Her favourite activities are to draw, paint, swim, go shopping, read, take a bath, go to the park and enjoy the outside. She’s growing up fast and is lots of work and fun. She loves school! Our son is a bundle of boundless energy. He is currently in Kindergarten and is constantly moving. He loves to eat, run and play with toys. He’s also beginning to read so really needs one to one attention for his letters and numbers.

We love the children with all of our hearts and are looking for a kind and gentlewoman to watch over them and teach them new words and games. As both are active children, energy is clearly a required element of our new Au Pair. Our household is a very loving one. We are flexible and we are sure you will have a great time.

Family 3

We are a very warm family of four people who look forward to welcoming another Au Pair to join us for the coming year. The children you will be looking after are eight and ten years old and are just great fun to be around! We live in a turn of the century renovated Victorian house in the city of New Haven, which is very close to Yale University.

We would like an au pair come to live with us because, as a two parent working family, we realize that we could use some help in raising our children at home on a day-to-day basis. We have hosted 4 au pairs in the past nine years. We’ve had good experiences and stay in touch with all of our previous au pairs to this day. We therefore feel comfortable with accommodating an au pair in our household. We expect an au pair to be an integral part of our family, but we also hope that she be independent enough to establish her own network of friends.

Beyond helping us with our two sons, our au pair will be a guest, experiencing this country through her stay with us. We have run a small Bed and Breakfast in our home for the past four years and have enjoyed meeting and guiding various visitors and researchers to here and the surrounding towns. This experience makes us feel particularly qualified to introduce an Au Pair to this part of the country. We look forward to sharing our favourite beaches, country roads and vacation spots with her.

We expect the au pair to help in waking the kids in the morning, dressing, feeding them breakfast and taking them to and from school as needed. As they are two years apart, we expect the au pair to have some previous experience in balancing the needs of two different children. She will be responsible for their care throughout the day when they are not in school. This includes preparing and feeding them lunch and snacks, supervising their homework and driving them to their various after school activities. Once we are home, or while the children are in school, the au pair is free to do as she wishes. We belong to a 24-hour fitness facility and the au pair will have access to this as she pleases. She can also take classes at a nearby Art Center or any number of local colleges offering classes she would find of interest. We hope to spend a little time with the au pair at the end of every day, to share stories about the day’s activities and the children, or simply to talk about her experiences in both countries.

The neighbourhood is very friendly and safe. There is a great diversity of people, both young and old. During all seasons the au pair is encouraged to walk both the children around the neighbourhood and to the nearby parks. There are also many other au pairs in the area and we anticipate that the au pair will make friends and acquaintances. We hope to make our prospective guest welcome in our home and our community. We look forward to meeting her!

Family 4

Hi there! My husband and I are so thrilled that we have our son. He is an adorable 4 year old who loves life, has a wonderful sense of humor and a wonderful enjoyment of life. My husband and I have been married for seven years and when our son was born, felt as if all our dreams came true. Choosing to hire an au pair has been a wonderful decision. We have enjoyed having a young person in our home and have been able to share our life experiences and help a young woman become more globally aware and culturally diverse. At the same time, we were confident our son was getting excellent care and attention.

No, a bit about us…

Our son is a blue-eyed blond little boy. He loves life and enjoys laughing and having a great time. His favourite toys are his trucks, cars and airplanes. He also enjoys swimming, soccer and karate. He has a great time playing with other children. Being outside, enjoying the sunshine is another one of his favourite activities. He loves his play car and his neighbourhood friends. I have a full time job in New York City and occasionally travel outside of the United States. I work for a wonderful company that encourages family life therefore my husband can sometimes travel with me, and so can our son.

We live in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath expanded Cap Cod style home. Our au pair’s room is located on the main floor of the house and has close access to the main floor full bathroom. Each bedroom has it’s own television and we have a finished basement, which includes a large family room with a big screen TV, a large play room and exercise room. The house is decorated with great care and we have a large garden in the front and the back of our house. Our home is located in a New Jersey township called Ridgewood. Everything is available to us, including many parks, a great YMCA, a large community pool and a wonderful main street filled with great restaurants, stores and a movie theatre. I find on weekends I don’t have to travel far to get what I need. The town is less that a mile away and the streets are lined with sidewalks, perfect for a stroll around the neighbourhood or to town. If you are into bike riding or jogging, there is a beautiful paved trail. There are several Universities and Colleges, if one is interested in extending their knowledge on just about anything.

We welcome a young person looking forward to a cross-cultural experience. We have traveled the world extensively and have a great appreciation for many cultures and countries. We want to share this opportunity with a young person and show them how wonderful it is to live in America and experience life here. We too look forward to learning from our au pair.

Family 5

Hello, I’m the Mom in our family. My husband and I have two wonderful sons, aged 10 and 14, and we have been a host family for 6 years now. Not only are we experienced with the program, we understand what is truly meaningful about it – allowing the au pair to become part of our family for a year, not only to provide childcare for our children but to grow and learn about another culture.

We are both an international family – my husband is German, I am American and our sons who were both born in Germany have dual citizenship. We think the au pair program is ideal for childcare because it allows us to constantly expose our sons to different cultures and languages, as well as allowing someone who is like a family member to look after them. Additionally we, the parents, appreciate a mature girl who can also share and be part of an adult friendly relationship, since we understand that taking care of children is a very challenging and responsible undertaking.

Our oldest, of course is at an age where he needs little childcare – but having someone who can relate to a young teenager and help him with homework when needed, encourage him with his studies or just be able to have good conversations and interactions with him is important. Other than that he requires no childcare. Our youngest is one of the happiest and joyous kids you’ll ever meet. He has had very close and loving relationships with all of our au pairs. He is very easy going and has a warm and loving disposition. A typical day for our kids during the school year would be to get up in the morning and help the youngest get dressed and ready for school. After that our au pair has time for herself until the boys get home from school. Both boys like to cook and help prepare meals when the time allows – hopefully you will like to cook – this is a great activity to do with the boys. Mostly in the evenings and weekends our au pair has free time but I do need someone who can be flexible. During the summer time the boys are home so this is a full day and our au pair can anticipate working the full 40 – 45 hours during the 3 summer months.

We have a very lovely home with 4 bedrooms and a large back yard in a very central location on the Eastern side of the USA. We are about a 2 hour drive from the mountains, the beach or Washington DC. Virginia is a beautiful state – very lush and green and is also famous for its American history. During the summer we like to go on holiday to one of the lovely beaches around here – North and South Carolina and in winter we sometimes go to the western part of Virginia for skiing and snowboarding. We belong to a sports club that offers indoor swimming, fitness classes etc. We require our au pair to be a good and responsible driver in order to have access to our cars – there is not a lot of driving of the kids that is required and we know that you would like to be able to visit with friends and such. Our au pair’s room has her own bathroom and desktop computer in her room with wireless Internet access. Although she is also welcome to participate in our family activities any time, although we do understand and respect that she will also need her own time as well.

Finally, we just look to have a mature, independent young lady who knows and understands the children and wants to be an integrated member of our family. We want you to have a good social life and interact with other au pairs and peers that you will meet here through your social activities. We’re also here to support you with any challenges you have since we know that there are times when it can be difficult to be away from your home, family and friends. Learning and living in a new culture is one of the most wonderful advantages anyone can have in our global world today – we have a very open mind and want to share and learn about yours as well…We hope to be your substitute family for a year!