Introducing........Au Pair in America host families!

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Family 1

Hello. My husband and I are both artists. Our household is blessed with two happy, loving children. Our eldest is 12 and our youngest is 10 years old. The children’s time at home is spent reading, playing piano, homework, nature walks, arts and crafts, drawing and painting. Reading is extremely important and I have found that has been a favorite activity for our previous au pairs because their English improves tremendously.

The responsibility of the au pair is helping to provide a creative and inspiring environment for the children by involving them with the activities mentioned above. A small portion of each day is devoted to cleaning up after the children, their laundry and helping in the kitchen. The children are in school from early September to the end of May. Our au pair helps them get ready for school in the mornings (6:45 to 8:00am). They are in school from 7:55am to 3:00pm. She then helps them with their homework and their piano practice after school. We usually have dinner at 6:00pm or 6:30 and whatever is not completed before dinner is finished afterwards. Some evening care is required. The summer schedule includes five days with the children and some evening care.

Our home is a very large house built in the 1850’s. The property is extensive with the house built on the edge of the Delaware River. It’s beautiful! My husband’s studio is on the property and he works at home half the time. As a self-employed person our business and therefore some employees are based in our home. The house can be active yet it is large so one can always find a quiet, private place.

Our community is small as we are outside of the city but a very short commute to Philadelphia (10 miles or 30 minutes by train). Philadelphia is famous for its historic significance. New York is 80 miles away (2 hours by train and the train station is 1 mile from our home).

We enjoy Au Pair in America because we believe the cultural exchange is very important. Our children are at an age where their minds are very open and accepting and we want them to have a sense of understanding the world.

We would like someone who is loving, responsible and earnest. With a mature childcare person we would like to have a relationship of mutual respect and consideration. We look forward to meeting you!

Family 2

Hi, let me introduce myself and my family to you in this letter. My husband and I met nineteen years ago in Switzerland where he grew up and I moved to after having lived in the United States until my teen years. Twelve years ago we both moved back to live in New York and, after 2 years, chose to move out into the suburbs. We now live approximately 35 minutes from New York City. Our town is the ideal place to raise children with good schools, a safe environment and beautiful surroundings. Our home is across the street from a large park and close to the Hudson river, where we occasionally go sailing in the summer.

Our eldest daughter is 9 years old and is a very active girl. She loves music, singing, playing ‘barbie’ but also loves to help her Dad doing repairs around the house. Her passion is swimming and having had the ocean at our front door for three years, she has become an excellent swimmer. Our youngest daughter is 7 years old. She is the happiest little girl you could imagine with a great sense of humor. She adores her big sister. She is a very open and funny little girl who has no fear and is always keen on imitating her big sister. She is very outgoing and also very independent. Both girls will be returning to school in September. They have many friends and enjoy play-dates with some of the children in the afternoons. I encourage that they go and play in the park and meet other children.

My husband and I currently work full-time and leave the house between 7 and 8 in the morning. We return around 6 in the evening. As my husband is self-employed he is sometimes working from his home office. Your daily routine would be to prepare their breakfasts, school lunches and get both girls ready for school. You will be occasionally asked to go grocery shopping. Once the girls return from school around 3pm they should do their homework. Both girls also enjoy one-to-one time with the au pair. I don’t encourage the girls to watch T.V. too much, only once they have done their homework and their rooms are clean.

You will have access to the car during the day so that the girls can be driven to and from play dates and events and also for you to attend evening classes at the local college. As soon as my husband and I are home the whole family is in the kitchen preparing dinner. It is very important to us that the family eats dinner together as meals are also a special event to us and all of our au pairs have always been welcome to join us. Our family really enjoys cooking and eating good and healthy food. We were very surprised a week ago when the girls whipped out a children’s cookbook and prepared a shrimp curry – it tasted great but I won’t mention what the kitchen looked like afterwards though!

We’ve encourage our previous au pairs to travel as much as possible and really discover their local area, as this is a unique opportunity for anyone to live in this area. You will have plenty of opportunities to discover New York City or even take a trip to Boston or Washington for the weekend. We believe that our girls are smart and thrive on new experiences. We are therefore looking for someone who will not only watch them but also actively participate in their learning and is willing to challenge them. This is now our ninth year with au pairs living in our home and sharing family life with them. We have had many positive experiences and maintained close friendships with most of them. We are confident that we will have another successful year with our future au pair.

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Family 3

Dear Au Pair,

This is our tenth year with Au Pair in America and we have been very happy with our au pairs and the program! In this letter we will tell you a little about us so that you have a better idea of what life in our family might be like.

We have two children; a girl aged 16 and a boy aged 13. They are happy, loving kids and look forward to the friendship they develop each year with our au pair. We all look forward to meeting you and learning about you, your home, country, customs and traditions.

My husband and I both have university degrees and work for the same company. We have been with them for 23 years and, in this time, have worked in different parts of America. We both enjoy traveling and often travel all over the world for our jobs.

The kids each have a pet – our daughter has a bird and our son has as guinea pig. Let us describe a typical day for you:

During the school year (mid August to early June) you will either drive the children to and from high school or to and from middle school. We carpool with another family and rotate who drives each week. This may change this coming year because our daughter will get her driving license this summer. During the day you are free to take classes, go to the library, relax around the house or visit with friends. Between 3 and 6pm you will pick the kids up from school and when they arrive home they’ll have a snack and do their homework Then you might drive them to sports practice or take them to a friend’s house to play. Both my husband and I get home at around 6:00pm.

During the summer months your schedule will vary according to what activities the children are involved in. They might take swimming lessons at a local pool, have a babysitting job or play with friends. You can also take them on special outings such as to a museum, amusement park or a movie. Our daughter is hoping to get her first job this summer. You will have free time most evenings and weekends. There are a large number of au pairs in the Cincinnati area, so you’ll make many friends. You are welcome to go out with friends, work out at a health club, relax or do whatever you like to do during your free time. You’ll find a lot to do here.

We have a vacation home in Massachusetts and sometimes go there for 1 – 2 weeks in the summer. The beaches are beautiful there and we like to take part in windsurfing, swimming and biking. You will have access to our car to take the kids to and from their activities during the day. With permission you will also be able to use it for your own activities in the evenings and on weekends. Our house is two storeys tall with five bedrooms. You will have your own bedroom and bathroom. The kids each have their own bedroom and share a bathroom right next to yours. Our living room has a billiard table and we often play games in the evening after dinner. The basement is a place we workout and play. My husband keeps his exercise equipment there. There is also a ‘movie’ room with a large screen TV.

There is so much we could tell you but, for now, we’ll just say that we are looking forward to developing a mutually rewarding relationship with you. We hope to learn more about you and your country and will help you discover America. We can’t wait to meet you and are eager for you to become part of our family!

Family 4

Our family currently consists of Mom, Dad, three kids and our dog. I am a real estate agent and my wife is a real estate consultant specializing in hotels. Our dog is really well behaved and very friendly with new people. Our current au pair is from Austria.

Our daughter is 10-years old and loves school, soccer and music. She particularly loves to read and, like most 10-year old girls, likes to hang our in her room with friends listening to music and talking. She is very athletic – she’s on two soccer teams and also plays lacrosse. Right now, the thing she is most excited about is the 10 days she will spend at a camp in Arizona this summer going horseback riding.

Our son is 6 – he will be 7 by the time you arrive – and is a very normal little boy, which basically means he is a good kid but loves to bug his sister sometimes! He really loved first grade this year and is considered one of the friendliest and nicest in his class. His favourite sport is baseball. One of our favourite things about the kids is that they are such good friends. Of course, they do argue sometimes, but they also have a lot of games that they like to play together.

We live in a small town that is 30 minutes north of New York City. The house is fairly large, with six bedrooms. We have access to the internet and our au pairs are always welcome to use the computer to stay in touch with family and friends. Our neighborhood is nice with lots of families and smaller kids. Our house is within walking distance of the train station (about a 10 minute walk) and the train into Manhattan takes 30 minutes, making it easy to visit all the wonderful things there. Some of our past au pairs have taken classes in the city. Others have attended classes at one of several colleges in the area.

The family schedule is organized around the children and the fact that both my wife and I work. In the summer the hours are more along the lines of 9:00am to 6:00pm with no real weekend hours. Both kids will be going to camp for two weeks at the country club. Our son is also signed up for one week of baseball camp. Because of our schedules, we need someone to take care of the kids when we are at work. We like having an au pair because this provides us with a happy, energetic young person to spend time with the kids. We hope the au pair will feel comfortable in our home – and will be a partner with us in raising the kids. We want so many things for them, and the best way to do this is to get to know people from different cultures and to learn about the customs of other countries. An au pair is a great way to accomplish this and we’ve always encourage au pairs to teach the kids about their country, language and favourite foods.

At the same time we can share our lives and culture with the au pair. This means not only our local town but also other areas of the U.S.

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Family 5

Dear Au Pair,

Welcome to America and welcome to our family. I would like to introduce ourselves. We are a very international family. My husband was born in France, I was born in New York, our son was born in London and our daughter in the USA – so we are accustomed to different cultures, countries and values. Both my husband and I are French originally but have lived abroad for many years. Both of the kids are bilingual French / English as they go every summer to see the grandparents and now attend a French / American school in the neighborhood.

Both my husband and I work. My husband works in the hair colorants business so please feel free to ask him all the tricks-of-the-trade! I work 3 days a week in the cosmetics business.

Our son is a lively and very sociable young boy. His favourite way to spend a day is to have friends over to play with his remote controlled cars, legos and costumes. He really enjoys swimming and playing in the pool, or even better, in the waves of the ocean. Our daughter is a sharp, loving young girl. She enjoys reading tremendously, and after school she likes to pretend to do some ‘homework’ as her brother does his. It seems as if she can’t wait to grow up. Our children get along well (most of the time) and play nicely together. They really love playing hide and seek around the house or the garden.

Ever since our son was born 7 years ago we have had an au pair live with us from all different countries – France, Scotland, South Africa and Philippines. We have always enjoyed nice relationships with the different au pairs we welcomed to our house and the children really like having a young person around the house.

As we are not far from the city, we believe we have the best of both worlds – the city buzz whenever we want it and the pleasure of having a nice house in a quiet neighborhood. Our town has a small city center with one long street with shops three minutes away from our house. There are plenty of activities for you to do in the area. There are plenty of shopping malls as well as movie theaters and if you enjoy sports there is a public swimming pool, ice skating ring, tennis courts etc. And last but not least our house is about 1 minute away by foot to the ocean!

Our house has five bedrooms so you will have your own with your private bathroom, both of which have a nice view of the garden. You will also have your own car, which will be used primarily to drop of the children at school. The added benefit is that in your free time you have full access to this car to drive wherever you want in the area. For us the au pairs is a new member to the family who shares our meals (when she feels like it), will come on holiday with us at times. We hope to make you feel at home very, very fast. In terms of chores we only expect you to take care of things related to the children, which means tidying up their rooms and ironing their clothes.

And last but not least we really hope you will have lots of fun with us. We really like the au pairs as they usually have a cheerful, loving, positive attitude!

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