Au Pair Experience and Stories

200 dollars a week and 800 dollars a month for an Au Pair salary? That’s what you get paid when you work as an Au Pair in America. The Au Pair salary is not a fortune, but it is not that bad either.
I worked as an Au Pair in California and I personally tried to use my complete income for priority number one, having fun. So I found a nice strategy to work towards it. I gave my best to eat, sleep and shower at my host families house, to keep the shopping bill for clothes and make up low and also I tried to use my student ID as much as possible. And if you think about it now, earning 200 dollars Au Pair salary per week? Just for fun? That is a lot of money for a student who just graduated from High school and joined the Au Pair world.
After I saved the first au pair salaries I started to travel every fourth weekend, so once a month. I flew out to beautiful Hawaii, cruised down to Mexico, drove all the way up on the pacific coast highway to San Francisco and I got some fun skydiving jumps as well. In between my travels I went a lot to the beach, meet up with Au Pair friends in the surrounding and worked out a lot. I think I found a good balance between crazy traveling and having fun at home.
To put it in a nutshell I had an incredible fun year being an Au Pair. The Au Pair Salary worked out just fine. And like I mentioned earlier this month I would recommend an Au Pair experience to everybody who loves kids and is ready for something different!

It happened to all of us.
We leave our hometown, our familiar surroundings, our friends and families in order to gain some enriching au pair experiences. We want to improve our English skills and learn about new cultures while we are working as an au pair. But it is not only that… We grow as a person, we get a better understanding of the world and we find better to ourselves.

Being an au pair and living the au pair life definitely has the potential of giving you a new vision.

Not every au pair follows the usual plan of returning home and entering the “old life” after the au pair experience is finished. Some Au pairs find true love, marry and stay. Others are starving to see more of the world and take another year for travelling. Also, lots of us realize what they want to become in life and follow their brand new career ideas. It also happens that some Au Pairs just cannot get enough and extend their au pair life and au pair experiences for another while..

However, it does not matter what we choose to do after our au pair experience is over, we absolutely expanded our horizon and opportunities in life.

You are a motivated and young person, who is full of energy and excited about life? You just left your home country, and can´t wait to get out there and start your new au pair life?

Done. You apply for the job, say goodbye to your loved ones, pack your stuff and enter the airplane… You meet your hostfamily, the kids adore you, you are more than satisfied with the place you live in and you love the warm and sunny weather. Everything seems perfect but here it comes…CURFEW.. for the weekdays, for the weekends, for every day…

Don’t worry. First of all at the beginning try to accept it, swallow it. You need to understand their point of view. You are still a stranger, the world is dangerous,and you are taking care of their most important thing in the world. Their kids! Despite of this fact, there should be a way to compromise and negotiate. The very first step would be to be a very responsible au pair in order to gain trust from your hostfamily. Try to always be on time, especially when you pick up the kids from school or somewhere else. Also, if you really want to succeed, use your soft skills! In my opinion soft skills play a vital role for your success to live without curfew. Be sensitive, communicate in a very friendly way, be optimistic, be a good listener, show desire to learn. And after a while talk to your hostparents about your concerns.. I guarantee you that is the right path!

Good Luck! I did it, and so I know you can do it!
Cheers,
Marie read more

Hi, I am Marie Therese and I come from a little town in Austria. I am a friendly, curious, active and young person who loves to be around people and especially kids. I really enjoy travelling, learning, trying new food and drinks, skiing, telling stories, surfing, skydiving, riding, dancing, partying and so on.. I loooove karaoke… my friends say I suck.. but I think they are just jealous… I also love spontaneity and randomness. It always creates a constant adventure

I left my hometown in August 2009 to start the most exciting journey ever. I was off to my first stop in New York, USA as an AU PAIR.. how exciting it was… after a week I left to California, OC to get a little sun kissed and of course to meet my hostfamily

that’s were my life as an au pair begun..

It did not take long to love my au pair life. I loved California and more important the family I was living with. And very soon I met lots of other au pairs and people from all over the world.

I started to do some amazing trips with my new friends to San Francisco, Hawaii, Mexico or just to a different beach of beautiful Cali

Moreover my hostdad introduced me to a new world. A world full of adventures, fun, craziness and amazing people. The skydiving world! He took me to exit an airplane from 13 000 feet.. I absolutely loved it!

To put it in a nutshell, getting experiences of being an Au pair means to me more than just nanny some kids. It is such a great opportunity to grow as a person and to create some amazing memories and stories you ll never forget!

You are a new au pair? an old au pair? a future au pair? or a current au pair? – it does not matter…

What is your story? I cant wait to hear from you!

Email me your au pair experiences (marie@aupairexperiences.com) and share it with all!