AU PAiR iN AUSTRALiA

Gastfamilie 4

Julie is curious child who is interested in almost everything. Andrew is a very happy and energetic little boy. They both attend childcare between 8.30 and 4.30 on Monday and Tuesday and spend the rest of the week with me at home. Julie has some friends in the neighbourhood and we often meet up with them at the park or at our house. Julie loves craft and art work, cooking, and visits to the park. Andrew loves being outside, colouring and trying to do what his sister is doing. Both of the children are very good eaters.

I enjoy visits to art galleries, playing the piano, golf, cooking, and reading. Nigel’s interests are more on the sporty side, but he is also a keen wood worker and reader. However, in the past 4 years children have become our chief hobby and we haven’t spent much time on our other interests!

In Sydney, we live in a large home in an inner western suburb. Although we are not right next to the beach, we are close to a train that allows very easy and quick access to the city and beyond that, the beaches. We have 4 bedrooms upstairs and plan that one of these bedrooms would be for the au pair.

We are looking to host an au pair because Nigel travels interstate quite a lot for work and also works late hours when he is in Sydney. In addition, I am hoping to return to work 2-3 days per week. So we would be grateful for some help with the children and around the house.

We imagine that the au pair would be able to make the morning routine and dinner/bath routine easier by providing an extra pair of hands. We also need help with the domestic chores that come with having small children – these include washing, folding and putting away the children’s clothes as well as some ironing. Also, keeping the kitchen and eating areas tidy and swept, and helping with meals. There are also occasional errands outside the house such as grocery shopping and picking up the dry cleaning. Of course there will be lots of fun times playing and doing activities with the children too. Also, Nigel and I rarely manage to go out together, so we would look forward to an evening out every now and then.

We would like to find an au pair who is organised but flexible. We run a relaxed household and we don’t always stick to a fixed routine every day. We can always accommodate plans that the au pair has if they would like to travel or take a day off to do something with friends. In return, we hope that the au pair could juggle her hours around on some weeks so long as it didn’t interfere with her plans. The changes would always be by mutual agreement.

We would like to find an au pair who is self sufficient, open minded and very importantly, has a sense of humour. Above everything else, we try to have fun and laugh with the children. We think it is more important to have happy children than a tidy house. Although, ideally we would like to have both!

We often have guests dropping in for a meal, afternoon tea, or sometimes to stay for a few days or sometimes a week. All four of our parents live in Adelaide and they will come to Sydney from time to time. Once the spare room becomes the au pair’s room, our visitors will sleep in Andrew’ room. So sometimes the house will be very full!

We don’t have very many set rules in our house, only to be thoughtful to others and to treat the house gently. We expect the children to do what they are told most of the time, to eat what is put in front of them (within reason), to go to bed on time, and to use manners and be generous to other people.

We hope that the au pair would become part of the family and sometimes join us on family trips even outside her work hours. But we also understand that sometimes she would prefer some time on her own or with friends. Although we expect that a young person away from home for the first time will need quite a bit of help to settle in and cope with an entirely new life on the other side of the world, we hope that she will be confident and capable enough to find her own interests and friends in Sydney.
Eventually, we would hope that au pair would drive the car to run errands or sometimes for her own outings. But for the first few months at least we would like her to get used to the surroundings and streets (and being on the other side of the road in the car!) before we hand over the car keys.

The main things that I would like a prospective au pair to think about when they are wondering whether they would be a good fit with our family are – whether it is OK that the house is often full of visitors? Are they prepared for the tiring and hard work that comes with children? Are they confident and mature enough to find a life for themselves on the other side of the world?

We are very excited about the prospect of welcoming someone new to our family, learning about them and their customs, and helping them to experience the best that Sydney and Australia have to offer.