14 years ago, I traveled to the US for the very first time to start my adventure as an au pair. For the next year, I lived with a family in Rhode Island and watched their three children. It was without a doubt, one of the best years of my life. Sure, it was stressful (after all, I had three children under the age of 3!), but it allowed me to grow so much as a person and after all these years, I'm still in contact with the family and call them my second family!
Fast forward 6 years and I'm back in the US, this time in California, working as a Community Counselor for an au pair agency, helping families find au pairs and taking the au pairs out for activities once a month. I worked for them for 7 years and just recently stopped when we had Fox, because my evenings and weekends with him were too precious.
So here we are, about to have an au pair of our own. Talk about full circle!
We always thought that Fox would go to daycare once the time came. Until we toured about ten of them and hated them all, we just couldn't imagine leaving our sweet boy there. There wasn't anything wrong with them (okay, one of them was really filthy and the babies were left unsupervised during our short visit), it just wasn't for us.
So we tried out a nanny share with one of my friends, but unfortunately it didn't work out.
We really liked the idea of having someone consistent in Fox's life, in his own environment and since I had such an amazing experience as an au pair myself, we decided that this was the route we wanted to go.
Before we started looking at candidates, I said to Katie that I wouldn't look at anyone who wasn't German and who wasn't female. I wanted a German au pair so she could teach Fox the language along with me.
Needless to say, things never work out the way you plan them and in the end, we chose a male au pair from Denmark. Katie found his profile and instantly loved him. Like I said, I was really opinionated about only having a German girl and hated to admit, that I liked his profile as well.
We scheduled an interview on skype with him and asked a few of our co-workers to sit in the background to observe and give us their opinion afterward and what do you know...we all loved him, and after one more interview and a few emails back and forth, we asked him to join our family for the next year. And he said yes!
For the last year, he has worked in a daycare, taking care of children, ages 6 months - 2 years. Fox LOVES men, he lights up every time he sees his grandpas and uncles and just seems to gravitate to men in general (go figure!), so we're very excited for him to have another male influence in his life.
So in a few short days, we'll be picking him up from the airport and I'm sure he is just as nervous and excited as we are (well, probably more nervous)!
Fast forward 6 years and I'm back in the US, this time in California, working as a Community Counselor for an au pair agency, helping families find au pairs and taking the au pairs out for activities once a month. I worked for them for 7 years and just recently stopped when we had Fox, because my evenings and weekends with him were too precious.
So here we are, about to have an au pair of our own. Talk about full circle!
We always thought that Fox would go to daycare once the time came. Until we toured about ten of them and hated them all, we just couldn't imagine leaving our sweet boy there. There wasn't anything wrong with them (okay, one of them was really filthy and the babies were left unsupervised during our short visit), it just wasn't for us.
So we tried out a nanny share with one of my friends, but unfortunately it didn't work out.
We really liked the idea of having someone consistent in Fox's life, in his own environment and since I had such an amazing experience as an au pair myself, we decided that this was the route we wanted to go.
Before we started looking at candidates, I said to Katie that I wouldn't look at anyone who wasn't German and who wasn't female. I wanted a German au pair so she could teach Fox the language along with me.
Needless to say, things never work out the way you plan them and in the end, we chose a male au pair from Denmark. Katie found his profile and instantly loved him. Like I said, I was really opinionated about only having a German girl and hated to admit, that I liked his profile as well.
We scheduled an interview on skype with him and asked a few of our co-workers to sit in the background to observe and give us their opinion afterward and what do you know...we all loved him, and after one more interview and a few emails back and forth, we asked him to join our family for the next year. And he said yes!
For the last year, he has worked in a daycare, taking care of children, ages 6 months - 2 years. Fox LOVES men, he lights up every time he sees his grandpas and uncles and just seems to gravitate to men in general (go figure!), so we're very excited for him to have another male influence in his life.
So in a few short days, we'll be picking him up from the airport and I'm sure he is just as nervous and excited as we are (well, probably more nervous)!
How awesome!!! I wish I had known more about au pairs when our boys were born. we lived so far away from our family & an extra set of hands during the day would have been so nice with 3 babies to care for. I managed but how nice would it have been, lol :)
ReplyDeletePS, i think it's awesome Fox will have a male au pair!
Hey :)
ReplyDeleteHätte ich das gewusst, hätte ich mich glatt beworben!
Ich bin relativ neu hier auf dem Blog, weil ich eure Situation sehr spannend finde... Du hast mir ein paar Ängste genommen. Danke dafür!
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland,
Mimi
Das ist ja großartig! Ich wünsche euch allen eine tolle Zeit! Wenn ich nicht schon zu alt wäre, würde ich glatt wieder rüber als AuPair :)
ReplyDeleteLiebe Grüße aus Hamburg
Jenni
Awesome decision - for me Danes are pretty much Germans anyway :) Well, I might have to point out that my home town isn't far from the Danish boarder and therefore we sometimes just went to "the other side" to get one of the awesome Rød pølse (Danish hot dog).
ReplyDeleteFunny though, the background of "our American family" is Danish as well.....
I am sure Fox will love his new international friend :)