… is a name of a book for children by Emily Smith. Illustrated by Tim Archbold. In a nutshell: Harry’s mum tells him they are going to get an au pair. When he finds out that an au pair is a girl that will help look after him and his brother in exchange for learning English and some pocket money, Harry is suspicious: “It’ll be strange…someone living in the house. Someone from another country. I wonder what she’ll be like?” Mum looked thoughtful: “I don’t really mind where she comes from. I just hope she’s got some common sense. That’s what I need. A nice down-to-earth girl…” I must agree with Harry’s mum - that’s all we, host-mothers, wish for: we always hope for down-to-earth girls with common sense!
When Astrid arrives Harry likes her even though she seems a bit strange. The reason for her ’strangeness’ is that she is not an ordinary girl. She came down-to-Earth from another planet called Antalusia as part of her ‘Project 492′: a study of home life in a typical Earth family, with particular reference to young humans. Her planet is 500 light years away!
Astrid is a fast learner, though she has a problem with understanding some English expressions and words for objects and activities that they don’t have in Antalusia. One of many funny episode unfolds when mum asks Astrid to vacuum the front room while she is gone. Harry could not hear the sound of the vacuum cleaner and when he checked Astrid, she seemed to be hard at work. But she was not hoovering. She had got lots of bits of cloth and was stuffing them around the window frames. When Harry asked her what she is doing, she said she is sealing the windows: “For vacuum, of course! You have to seal any outlets to get a vacuum. Surely you know that?” And then Harry consults his clever friend to find out what happens if you make a vacuum in someone’s front room and his friend tells him that the room will implode! Upon hearing that Harry decides very quickly to introduce Astrid to the vacuum cleaner and explains how it works. This kind of ‘misunderstanding’ can happen to any new au pair - even an Earth au pair - as their command of the country’s language may be limited. It is important to communicate clearly and in a very straightforward way with your au pair. This particularly applies if your family’s language is not their first language. You can read how important this is in my older blog entry called my au pair duties and excuses….
Astrid and Harry get up to more adventures but unfortunately after a year in Harry’s family Astrid has to return home, like all au pairs always do.
My daughter and I have enjoyed reading this charming and funny book. If you are thinking of inviting your first au pair into your family, it may be a nice book to read to your children to introduce them to the idea of having a new person in your home. Though any Earth au pair will have a hard job competing with Astrid’s abilities and her out-of-this-world gadgets such as her cool SmartCase that floats in the air and contains a lot amazing stuff :-)
Not a very suitable question for Valentine’s Day but hey a question that I get quite often from people curious about the au pair world and a question worth answering for people serious about the au pair programme!
We had a couple of au pairs where we can say it did not work out as well as we have hoped for. One stayed just a week after she had realised that being an au pair is not really a job where you would earn loads of money and she was not able to cover the mortgage for a flat she was hoping to let prior to her departure to Ireland. She was in her late twenties and was used to her independence - financial and other. She thought to start as an au pair first to improve her English and then to move onto something else. She clearly did not know about what au pairing is going to be like so she quit after a week.
For all au pairs to be - rule number one: if you want to be an au pair make sure you understand that being an au pair is a cultural exchange experience rather than a full wage paying job. In return for helping to look after children and do a little bit of light house work you will become part of a new family, have your room with full board and receive weekly pocket money. The pocket money is usually just enough for a few treats, trips around the country, maybe to pay for a language course. I have been an au pair a few times myself and never really managed to save any money but spent it all on having a good time, getting to know the country and paying for a language course. But that was exactly what I intended to do.
Another au pair we had left after a week because she was too homesick and missed her boyfriend and family too much. This is tricky because one never knows how they would feel when they leave their loved ones for the first time and go far away. Some people can cope with separation and new environment quite well while others don’t and unless one tries, it is never quite straight forward.
Both situations have left us in a difficult position as we had to make alternative arrangements in regards to child care very fast but there was nothing we could do and it was for the better. Nobody wants to see an upset, homesick or unhappy au pair in their house.
Then we had an au pair, which was not homesick or looking to earn loads of money but who was extremely quiet. She played with our younger one nicely, she could sit on the floor with him building houses from Lego for hours but she barely spoke to him. We have tried to ask her questions to build up some connection, rapport and understanding but after receiving just monosyllabical answers or mere nods, we have given up after a few weeks. This young girl stayed with us for five months and wanted to continue for another five but we have decided that our children need more verbal communication and warmer interaction. It was a hard decision because we did not want to hurt her feelings as she was a nice 19-year old girl but the whole atmosphere in the house was making us all feel a bit subdued.
If it happens that the chemistry between the family and the au pair is not there, then it may be best to end an unhappy or unsatisfactory arrangement. Let’s hope that if you ever have to consider parting with an au pair earlier than expected, that you will both part on good terms and both of you will be able to find a suitable match through our www.myaupairbook.com fast. Remember, there is a lid for every pot!
When I posted my first blog entry on the 15th of April this year, little did I know that it will be another 6 months before myaupairbook.com launches. The reason why it took slightly longer is because it is a complex website, I was not in a massive hurry to launch it till I had my vision completely clear and translated into web pages and some Irish bank institution worked a little slower than expected. But here we are, it is up and running!
I am thrilled with the great work by brilliant web designer Ruth Egan from Fireball Media Group! She has been a real pleasure to work with. Throughout the project we were on the same wave link when it comes to the visual and functional design of my brand new exciting site for au pairs and families! Somehow we did not need too many words in describing how the site needs to look and feel, there was a mutual feeling of understanding what will distinguish our site from other au pair/host families websites.
I believe we have achieved what we set out to achieve at the start - to have a several social media tools incorporated into a really clean and well functioning site. I hope that you agree and if you are going to use our services, I am looking forward to receiving feedback from you. There is always space for improvements!
