I am a two-time grand-au pair now!

Every au pair has a little different view on how old children they want to work with as au pairs - and to tell the truth, I honestly think every age has it's own pros and cons. With younger children you get to witness many milestones and get to teach them a lot new things and be there to see their development. When I was an au pair for the second time I actually was taking care of a boy who had just turned 2 years, and it indeed was fun to see how he grew from a little toddler to a small boy.  During my first year as an au pair, my host family consisted of 4 children and the oldest one was a teenage girl. Many au pairs are a bit doubtful when it comes to being an au pair for teenagers, but I can very warmly recommend it -- you are often close in age and usually the responsibilities are a bit different when it comes to taking care of younger children. Often the relationship that gets built between you two will be more sisterly/brotherly and they will of course remember you in the future!

In the beginning of course it was hard - my host child was very attached to her previous au pair, and it took time for us to build a relationship. As there were 3 younger children in the family, I spent most of my time taking care of them and not too much with the teenager. Our one-on-one time was always in the afternoons when I picked her up from school and we would drive home. Slowly but surely these drives would become the part that both of us were looking most forward to during the day. That would be the time of the day we could gossip about boys, plan our next shopping trip, plan which movies to watch, talk about her school days and teachers and so much more. During my year as her au pair, we definitely grew and inseparable bond and we continued to stay in touch and keep that bond strong. The other children in the family well still fairly young after I left so I did stay in touch with them through the parents in the family but with the oldest child we kept in touch. Few years ago she reached out to me and told that she was expecting her first baby, and now she is currently expecting her second baby! I like to call myself now a "double-grand au pair"! Even though we do not keep in touch always that often, I am still happy to have become part of their lives and follow both my host-kid's (not that she is that much of a child anymore haha) and her family's life!

One of my absolute favorite part about going as an au pair definitely was the fact, that you create relationships that last for life.