Family 1

My husband and I have been married for over 9 years and are pregnant with out first child due in November. We are expecting a girl. We both work full time, but also enjoy a lot of time with family and friends. My parents live an hour away and we visit each other often. When we are not doing either of those activities we are working on home projects, whether inside the house or in the yard.

My husband works from home in his own office upstairs in our house. He does leave for sales appointments and occasionally stays out of town overnight approximately twice a month. I also work from home most often but occasionally go into my office in downtown Richmond. We both have very flexible work schedules for the most part and would be looking for an au pair to be flexible as well in terms of on duty and time off. I will be home full time for the first 3 months after the baby is born. During that time, we would primarily be requesting the au pair to help us bathing, changing diapers, watching in general, helping with the baby’s laundry and any other general baby needs. After I return to work, we would need her to do the same duties but also help with feeding. I’ve not yet decided whether I will return to work full time or part time but will continue to work most of the time from home.

The qualities in an au pair that would be most important to us are experience with newborns and general comfort and compassion in caring for them. We would hope that someone who is older have mature behaviour in terms in of activities when off duty, dedication to her school work and take the responsibilities while working seriously. We’ve decided to have an au pair for a number of reasons – primarily because we both work from home most of the time, we wanted to be able to be near the baby instead of taking her to day care. Also, since both of my parents were born and raised outside of the United States I’m familiar with cultural differences. We’ve both travelled and lived abroad and understand the challenges that may be faced by being in an unfamiliar country. All of these reasons and more pointed us towards the au pair program to help us raise our daughter in her first year. We hope that the relationship with our au pair will be rewarding for her and for us. Thank you for your consideration.

Family 2

Dear Prospective Au Pair,

Hi, our family consist of four members – my husband, myself and our two daughters aged 6 and 1. We’ve been married for 16 years and the girls are now the focus of our lives. They are friendly, happy children that are a joy to be around!

The area we live in is surrounded by State Forest, which gives us plenty of nature and privacy and opportunities for hiking and mountain biking, as well as small ponds for swimming in the summer. Beautiful ocean beaches are also close by. We bought a small vacation house in New Hampshire a few years ago and spend weekends there snowmobiling, skiing and ice skating in the winter and boating, jet skiing and swimming in the summer. Last year we took off every Friday in the Summer and spent almost all of our vacation time there. We had a great time!

The rest of the time we live on a quiet cul-de-sac in a development of new homes in Massachusetts. The back yard borders part of the State Forest mentioned above. Our house has four bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Our au pair has a private bedroom with a TV and stereo, a big closet for all those clothes our au pairs seem to buy throughout the year and a queen sized bed. We’re very friendly with our neighbors and we enjoy neighborhood cookouts, gatherings and parties. In fact for several years our neighborhood has held Oktoberfest celebrations complete with German food, music and beverages. All of the families in the area have children between the ages of 1 and 10. Some of our neighbors also have au pairs so it is nice for our au pair to have someone her own age to be with on nights or weekends.

While our eldest is at school the au pair has the day to spend with the baby. She is learning and growing every day. Now that she is walking she’s a handful and needs to be supervised constantly but is so much fun to play with. She especially loves music. Our town is 25 minutes north of Boston. There are many restaurants, shops and shopping malls around the local and area and Boston offers countless social and cultural entertainment opportunities and a number of colleges and universities. We love living in New England and find that each season offers a variety of activities. Because we both work full time it is very important that we get the best possible care for the girls while we are at work. Of all the possible childcare options available, we feel that an au pair is the best choice. We hope that the au pair loves and has experience with children and will enjoy watching ours grow and help promote their learning and development, and be a positive role model and big sister for them.

We certainly hope that you will consider us as a potential host family and we are certain that we can offer you a unique experience in the United States, a fun family, and beautiful children to make memories with.

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Family 3

We are very excited about welcoming an au pair into our home. We are a family with two children living in Seattle, Washington. Our daughter is 2 years old and our son was born in June, so is still very young! My husband grew up with au pairs looking after him from Denmark, England and Italy. They also had a number of exchange students and other visitors living with them from time to time. I’ve also traveled in Europe, Africa and Asia. I have a younger sister, who has been living with us for the last year and a half and taking care of the kids while we are at work. She’s leaving for University very soon.

Although having small children has limited our activities a bit we still love to be active and enjoy the outdoors. Among our favourite activities are running, hiking, cycling and skiing. We are also active in our church and spend a lot of time with our family and friends. I always love to cook, when I have the free hands to do so! We have a vacation home about 1 – 2 hours away and would welcome the au pair to join us when we go there sometimes on the weekends.

We are looking for an au pair who loves babies and young children and who will bond with our children, love them and partner with us in raising them for the next year. Our son is still very young but so far has proved to be a very happy, cooperative baby. Our daughter is a fun-loving, energetic and spirited little girl. She loves animals, loves to read, is very active and has close bonds with the adults in her life. This year, we hope start her in some part-time preschool. It’ll be very important to us that our children continue to be very active, spend a lot of time outdoors and that minimize the amount of television and other passive activities. We are looking for someone with a lot of energy, who will engage our children physically and intellectually as they develop.

Family 4

We have two daughters. Our eldest is 5 years old. She’s busy this summer with camp, piano, tennis, swimming and playing the occasional computer game. She will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Our youngest is 2 – she’s very articulate, a big cuddler and enjoying a life of leisure this summer with few commitments, but is looking forward to starting pre-school in the fall as we are re-starting her dance and gymnastics classes, which she loves.

My husband works locally, just a short 10 –15 minute commute so can help out occasionally in the morning or evening, or even get home during the day if necessary. However, he often travels for business 1 – 2 days per week. I took leave of absence from my job in New York City to devote full time to taking care of the kids and house. I’m thinking of returning to work but am not sure what I want to do yet. We’ve lived in our house for 6 years now. We have a five-bedroom home giving us ample space for ourselves as well as the occasional family or friend visitor. We have a pool at the house, and the kids are probably in it every day. We picked this area because it’s close to my husband’s office, it has a nice town center with good shopping, a movie theater etc. and it’s easy to travel and see family – plus it has a direct train line to New York City!

We tend to travel a fair amount. We visit my husband’s family in Italy 1-2 times a year and usually take 1 – 2 other weeks of vacation as well as the occasional long weekend. We like both cultural as well as outdoor / beach travel. I also have four brothers, most with families of their own, making for other fun weekend trips. At home, we enjoy quiet evenings, often eating healthy meals. We probably spend one evening in New York every week or two. We both enjoy sports such as biking, running, tennis and golf. When possible, my husband likes to sail and may find the opportunity for a day sail or even a week trip in the Caribbean. The house, of course, demands some time with a regular list of projects to be done. Fortunately, we do have help with the yard and housekeeping.

As you can see, we try to fit a lot into our lives. We’re very conscious of the importance of a work/life balance for ourselves as well as to be good parents. A real family life is very important to us. We’d like someone who is educated and interested in many of the activities we like, so that we can enjoy time together and feel like we are receiving help from a “member of the family”. Besides helping with the kids, we’d expect the au pair to pitch in with us on light household tasks. Of course, we expect the au pair would have her own interests, educational, social etc. and would take off evenings, weekends or the occasional weekday as necessary. We would want to help the au pair as much as possible find friends and interesting things to do.

We thing an au pair would find being a part of our family a busy, fun and educational experience.

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Family 5

We are a close, loving family and value or time together. And although we lead busy lives, we always manage to spend a lot of time with each other. We do not stand on ceremony and are instead very open, casual and fun loving and we are looking for an au pair who will fit in and become part of the family.

Here’s who we are:

Me (Host Mom) works part time as a paediatrician so I can be around the kids as much as possible. My hobbies include walking, scrapbooking, talking to friends and being with kids.

My husband (Host Dad) loves listening to music and plays guitar. He also likes to play sports and roll around with the kids as much as possible. Our eldest is 11 years old and is in 6^th grade. He’s a mature and responsible boy who is very kind and sensitive. He loves to learn and read, but he also plays baseball, basketball and takes drum lessons.

Next is our 9-year-old daughter. She loves acting and performing and is involved in the local musical theatre program. She is about to start guitar lessons (she’s been dying to learn rock and roll on her electric guitar). She’s also into horseback riding and gymnastics – and she’s quite a fashion queen! Our youngest is 6 years old and in First Grade. He’s the family clown and is full of fun. He loves music and dancing and you can hear him singing at almost any hour of the day or night. He also plays soccer. We call him the mayor because he’s so incredibly social and everyone knows him and seems to love him.

We are looking for an au pair who enjoys playing with the kids, reading with them, taking them to the beach or our pool/tennis club and making play dates for them. We do not like our kids sitting in front of the TV for hours on end. We’d rather they be active, either physically or intellectually and the au pair is an important part of that process. We’d like the au pair to help with the morning routine – getting the children out of bed, feeding them breakfast, making their lunch and getting them on the bus in time. After school the kids get a snack and help with their homework. On many days they may need to be driven to after school activities or to play dates.

The au pair will have her own room with a bathroom directly across the hallway. There’s also another entrance to the house that is closer to the au pair’s room. We live in a beautiful, woody suburban community. Theirs is a lot to do near here, from beaches, to skiing, to museums and sports and events. There are many, many other au pairs in the community and there are a number of local areas where young people gather socially. In the past we’ve had au pairs from South Africa and Australia. We welcome the cultural diversity and the children love learning about far off places and people.