Being an au pair totally changed my career plans!

We interviewed our recruitment leader Susanna from Finland, who has been interviewing and coaching our applicants for over two years, and even before that she has started her "career" with Cultural Care Au Pair in Massachusetts! Susanna is currently studying to become a teacher, and now she tells how going as an au pair totally changed her career plans!

1. Why did you decide to work with children?
Actually, I swore from early age that I would be anything else except a primary school teacher, since my mother is a primary school teacher. But then, my little brother and sister were born and from that on I just started to work with children; as a nanny, a group leader in camps, an au pair! And then when it came time to apply to an university, I found myself applying to study to be a primary school teacher, and only that, since nothing else was closer to my heart. Before I started studying I spent a year as an au pair in Boston, MA, USA and that year made clear to me that I had made the right decision to study especially in Intercultural Teacher Education.

 2.  What would your advice be to someone thinking about a career working with children?
Get experience! It does not matter what the experience is, but just get to know children and their world and interact with them. When working with children, and especially teaching, you are never ready. You learn everyday about yourself and the children. And enjoy the company of children, they are so much more fun than adults are most of the time! 

 3.Having experience as a babysitter and then transitioning into working full-time with children, what would you say is the biggest difference in interacting with the children?As a babysitter I was there to take care of the children and have fun with them, and make sure their day went well, upbringing them in small situations and discussions. Now I am interacting all the time with 15 or more children and going through quite big discussions with them. I find myself now somehow being more on the background and giving the children more space to talk and ponder on those big questions and trying to help them to think for themselves rather than just telling them what to do. With over 10 years of experience from children I would strongly advice everyone to listen to them with your mind open. Usually children think outside of the box, and we adults have hard time understanding them!

 4.  What do you see as the benefit for kids in having an au pair?
There are plenty! First of all, from very young age onwards children get to experience closely someone from a different culture and practice interacting with that someone. Further in life we interact daily with people from different cultures, so I think it is very valuable for children to already notice that people are different depending from the culture and also with a culture. I think children also gain a lot of confidence from au pairs since they usually speak English as a second language and children get the chance to be "teachers" for the au pair. And of course, one close caring adult in a child's life is always great.

5.How can au pairs best help their host children prepare for school?
Listen to the children and make sure they feel good - school days are often full of different situations that  might be troubling children afterwards and they can have an effect to how the child feels about school. School is so much more than just doing exercises in class and learning from the teacher. Before the school day, make sure they have all they need for school and go through the day with them, this helps the child to be confident and if they forget something, this is when they usually remember it. After the school day, pay interest to the child's day: ask what they did, who did they play with and what do they have for homework, and what did they learn? This will help the children do way better in school and motivate them too!

 6. What do you think the benefits are for young kids in being exposed to different cultures early on?Chidlhood is the time to get educated for the upcoming life, so what could be a better practise to interact with people from different cultures than living with an au pair? Since in the modern day world we are required to be global and interculturally competetive, it is more than good to start from young to practise communication skills and also reflect on one's own culture. When children are exposed to different cultures from early on, I believe, that they become less judgemental when it comes to other cultures and learn from early on to appreciate the differences and richness of different cultures!