Guest Posts
Au Pair Annalisa took a very special “journey”.. a challenge with life and herself!
Hello! I am Annalisa Venticinque and I was an au pair for
one year and this is, surely, the experience which will mark my life for good!
I quit my job in Italy as a flight-attendant, because I was ready to risk, to undertake a new temporary existential “journey”: a challenge with life and myself!
I had been chasing the American dream for years and, then, when I was in foreign Land, I considered myself really fortunate!
The place where I have always dreamed of living was San Diego… The fate has been very nice to me and I only have to be thankful! This is the part of the world that, more than others, I would compare to Paradise: palms, beaches, sun and very nice people. Through the cluster meetings, then, I discovered a lot of new and surprising places, activities to do all around that county and last, but not least… the language courses at the UCSD. What saying? I couldn’t have asked more than that!
Being an au pair means a lot of things: above all being a loyal, respectful, patient, energetic and creative person. It takes to pull all these resources out in the shortest time as possible!
Children, in general, tend to test your patience and to put to the test your sensitivity.
At the beginning, for me it was not easy. I expected that the transition between the former nanny and I could be difficult for my kids, but I must admit I silently experienced some emotional turmoil, which I overcame soon.
I was an au pair of four children aged 11, 8, 4 and 2. It has been impressive to witness their physical and mental growth in only one year. In particular, I talk about the two youngest children. Their learning was amazing! The stimuli they get from their outside environment was immense and a visible source of richness. Their language is not obviously as developed as that of an adult, yet it is through them that I learned new words.
About the United States I have learned that there is a possibility for everyone, always an opportunity that you can take advantage of and that… meritocracy really exists!!!
In the American families there is a great sense of union and all the institutions work together in order to build a very strong society. Even at the bank, at the gym or at the carwash there are child centered activities. This, I believe, is the most amazing thing that my eyes could have witnessed! In Italy, where I come from, all this does not exist and the average number of children per family is only 1.1, which means the lowest in Europe. What a sadness!
I have learned that I have an amazing source of energy and the threshold of my patience had risen a lot once there with them. Most of all, I have realized that I am a very strong girl. Sure, I lived in a wonderful host family who I held and hold in great esteem, but homesickness and my loneliness were situations which I had to deal with on my own. It is the internal that emerges when we face new challenges that teaches us who we truly are, and what we have yet to become.
I was simply proud to be an au pair.
… Through the eyes of an Au Pair hostmum
Well, here is my experience as the host mom to two 
au pairs over the last year… I am a mom of three little munchkins. At the time we hired our first au pair, we had a three year old and twin one year olds, all girls. I embodied the term “overwhelmed”. After talking with my husband’s brother, who lives in England with his wife and three wee ones of their own, we were convinced to take his advice and get an au pair. They had hired several au pairs over the years, and loved everything about the experience. But we didn’t know anyone in San Diego who had hired an au pair, let alone had live-in help. We had no way to ensure the language barrier wouldn’t be an issue. Furthermore, we were in a small craftsman house, and had no room to house a new member of the family. But we decided to do it. So, we moved to a new house to accommodate the live-in help. We worked out a new budget to afford the au pair fees and chose to accept the awkwardness that comes with welcoming a stranger into your home, come what may. Looking back on our year, we are grateful we chose an au pair. We feel the cultural interraction with our au pair, as well as the comraderie I feel toward our au pair, far outweighed the worry of having another adult at the table each night (which was no big deal after the first few days). As a stay-at-home mom, it was nice to have a woman in the house to share the daily activities, successes, obstacles, etc, of the children. Together, the au pair and I survived the twins first steps (on the same day) and taught the twins to say goodbye in English and French! My four year old knows how to say “tree” in German now, too! We still keep in touch with our au pairs, and in fact one in particular (our favorite) still comes on family vacations to see the girls and help us out. We absolutely loved having our au pairs and we wouldn’t change a thing!
Lauren (mom of three gorgeous girls)
San Diego, CA
…The traveler – Cyrielle travelled through 14 states and Belize in only one year!
Salut,
my name is Cyrielle and I come from the Pyrénées
, France. I was an Au Pair in Colorado and it was amazing! After the first year, I decided to extend for 6months. At the beginning of my au pair year I was very excited, because everything was new. I had some troubles using the English language first, but I was so proud of myself when I improved my English skills and people started actually to understand me.
Sometimes though I felt like I am bored of doing the same thing every day like driving the kids to school, cooking for them, and so on.. I had up and downs for sure during my au pair year but a lot of things made me enjoy my au pair life in Colerado.
I consider myself as a very lucky au pair. My host family is very generous and they consider me as their own daughter.They always liked to travel and so far I’ve been to 14 states and Belize. I enjoyed it a lot! My host parents brought me a lot of self confidence. From the kids i got love too. I saw them growing up and realized that they were very tolerant towards people who come from different cultures.
My sisters came out to visit and it was so cool.. we checked out Colerado all together.. we had a blast by doing that!
Also, I loved living in Colorado where you can have the mountains and the city at the same time, it’s totally awesome, such a beautiful state. I ve never regreted being an Au Pair. After this year I feel more self confident and I have another vision of life and I think it’s important to share what we have even with strangers..
