To see my host family again- felt like yesterday

You say that your real friends and family will be there through everything. When I left the US after my time as an au pair, there were a lot of tears and mixed feelings. When leaving Sweden I knew my family and friends still would be there waiting when I got back. Leaving the US was not quite the same. I didn’t know if I would see them again and for sure not when I would see them again.

Now, almost five years later I went to visit them. I was worried. Would the children remember me (they had 3 au pairs after me and one who extended)? Would my host parents welcome me or would I be someone in the way of their Halloween? Did they really want me to come and stay with them in their house?

When my very best friend in the US came out from the car at the train station waiting for me, all of above worries disappeared. She drove me to what used to be my home for a year. When getting out of the car I saw a big banner above the front door (next to all Halloween decorations). It said “Welcome back Jenny”. It was made by the family and contained a lot of drawings, and for me; that meant everything.

The whole weekend was great. The children I got to know once again and my host parents and my friends, well, it felt like I was there yesterday. I can't even describe the feeling. It was not the same. It was a weird feeling. Many of my American friends is now out of college and no longer in the neighborhood, and the dog that I loved got sick a while ago and passed away. I felt sad I didn’t get to meet everyone, but it also made me feel so thankful. That I got to know all of them and how they have made me love my time as an au pair more than I could ever have realized.

 

7 years... that is a long time!

 

I know that all the au pairs can agree when I say – time goes by really fast! When you first get to the USA, there is so much to do, learn, experience and adapt to that the months just keep passing by – once you realize that you are closer to going home than when you got to the USA and you can just wonder, where did all the time go? As they say, time goes by fast when you are having fun!

To me it still feels that I was an au pair yesterday, when in fact it has been over 7 years since I took the plane over the Atlantic and started this new journey all by myself. It has been 7 years since I took the plane and flew across the USA all the way to Salt Lake City in Utah, where my lovely host family was waiting for me. Now after 7 years, my host children are not so small anymore – in fact, the oldest one already has her own son, which means that I am actually “a grand-au pair” – and I just heard the other day that she is pregnant with baby number two, how crazy is that?

Even though it has been already 7 years, many of the things still feel like they were yesterday! I still remember how the streets looked, where everything was placed in the grocery store, what me and my au pair friends always ate at certain restaurants. I still get together every now and then with one of my friends from my au pair time as we happen to live in the same city… even after all these years we still have so much to laugh about from our time in the USA!

I could go on about all the great memories I have from my time in the USA! Right now I just want to tell to all of you future and current au pairs that enjoy every minute, make the everyday-life special and please remember that this experience will follow you for the rest of your life! Even now, after 7 years, I still think that this has been one of the best things that I have ever done. Go and do it!

 

Becoming a real family member to your host family while being an au pair

"When I first joined the program in 2012, my biggest dream was to travel across the United States and experience a whole new culture. I had been working with children and loved the joy they brought to my life, so I thought this was a great and affordable opportunity to get an experience I could carry with me for the rest of my life.    

 

I think most people dream about becoming a family member to their host family, but what is it really like? When are you a family member to them and how do you know it? I had no doubt about what they meant to me. It was scary that someone who was completely strangers to you less that a year back suddenly could mean the world to you. 

 

 I experienced three days as an au pair where my youngest girl was sick.  She felt terrible and only wanted to sleep and lay on the couch all day. This was the same girl who usually had more energy than a whole army – she did soccer, karate, gymnastics and softball but not these three days. I felt sick to my stomach and would have taken her illness on me if I could. Isn’t it crazy how you can feel sick when somebody you love feels bad? I felt what they felt. When my oldest girl did her gymnastics competitions and were on the balance beam doing flips, I would hold my breath until she was done and I knew she was safe. When they were happy I was happy and when they cried my heart could break into a million pieces. I felt loved and appreciated by these girls and by their parents too. When I picked them up from school and they came running into my arms. When they took my hand and begged me to never leave them. When I tugged them in at night and they would tell me secrets. When they had a family photo taken and wanted me to join in. 

 

They brought me on vacations, I got to celebrate holidays with them, which were different from mine since they were Jewish and I’m Christian. They let me speak and be a part of the prayer around the table and introduced me to their religion. They celebrated my birthday like my friends and family would have done. The house was open for my friends to visit. When I felt sick and my host parents where out of town, the grandparents would take me into their house and treat me like the grandchild, trying to make me feel better. The grandparents addressed their messages ‘’Love Nana’’ and when I went back to visit them this summer 2014, the family picked me up in the airport, we drove to the aunt and uncles house to celebrate Father’s day and the they would introduce me as ‘’This is Camilla and she is a part of our family’’. Before I left the United States to go back to Denmark, they gave me a necklace – a key with a heart melted into it. On the side I found a note saying ‘’you have the key to our hearts and our home’’. And that’s when I for sure knew it was mine home to. This was my family – my second family."

 

 

Why should you extend your au pair-time? Well, why not?

"Going as an au pair to the USA does not always need to be going away for 12 months - we hope you are well aware of the fact that if you are enjoying your time in the USA, it does not have to stop there - you can extend with 6, 9 or 12 months, and you can choose if you want to extend with your host family or if you want to find another host family - maybe in another part of USA?

Here you can read few examples from our au pairs who extended, why they decided to do it and why they think it was one of the best decisions they ever made!

"My best advice will be to just do it. Don't think to much about it, just jump into it and do it! It's most likely gonna be the year of your life, and you won't regret it! It can be scary to think that you have to be away from everything you know for that long, but times fly by. When I started looking for Au Pair opportunities I was looking at things that was 6 or 9 months, but then decided to go with Cultural Care, and I ended up being there for 21 months, and didn't want to go home again!"

- Majken

 

 

"I am currently in my 6-month extension. I had not considered extending until my host family asked me to. They needed me for 6 more months and I have thought through before saying yes. I have tried looking at the pros and the cons but I only had pros! I could still go back to college after I came back, I could enjoy San Francisco for 6 more months as we had just moved there, I could improve my English even more and also travel more, discover more. My family was the kindest possible so this was a no-brainer.

I really don’t regret my choice: I would have never been ready to leave after a year! It goes by way too fast. The extension has been an opportunity to bond even more with my host family and leaving them will be very hard. I think a year and a half was the perfect duration for me."

- Caroline

 

"Becoming an au pair had been obvious for a long time but it took me months to decide about the extension. Since I arrived, the days have been passing by and one morning, I got up and realized I have been here for 6 months and was crossing to the other half of the adventure.

To be honest, I was not ready to come back home. Not ready to leave my American bubble, my incredible host family, my little monsters and my friends from all over the world. The extension then became obvious too.

After talking with my host family, I have chosen a 6-month extension. It allowed me to make the dream last while letting me go back to college after.

The au pair adventure goes by extremely quickly -when you reach the middle, you ask yourself where the time has gone? The extension is a personal choice and I had to make sure it would not compromise my long-term projects but I really chose with my hear, chose to spend a few more months in the most incredible host family."

- Myriam

 

 

"The main reason why I chose to extend my year for another 12 months was because I had such a great time and I didn’t wanted to give that up. I loved the work with my host kids. I had a great and very unique time with my host family. I made so many new friends there and I just simply loved the ‘American way of life’.
I would advise every au pair out there, who is still thinking about extending to just do it.”
- Kathrin

Want to read more? Check our homepage!

Finland: http://culturalcare.fi/uutiset-ja-tarjoukset/au-pair-extendaus/
Sweden: http://culturalcare.se/nyheter-och-erbjudanden/forlanga-din-aupair-tid/
Denmark: http://culturalcare.dk/nyheder-og-tilbud/extend-aupair/

 

My favorite moment

Have you ever had a moment in your life, when you feel that nothing is impossible and everything just feels great? I have one of those moments from my time in the USA, that I remember as it was yesterday.

This was during a vacation I went to with my host family in 2010, we went to Oceans City, Maryland. It was a great vacation, where we both had time for mini golf and also a beautiful wedding and many days at the beach. We actually lived in a beach house, so we played every day at the beach, doing cartwheels and building forts of sand.

We were there for two weeks, and almost every morning, around 7 AM, I woke up and went for a run, before anyone else woke up. I ran down the beach all the way next to the boardwalk to the pier with all the carousels. And then I ran back. Only this feeling was great, watching the quiet fishermen standing barefoot in the low waves. One of those days though was to become my favorite moment.

I sat down, after my run, to catch my breath, looking out the ocean, thinking about nothing. There and then there came 7 dolphins jumping out the water, only a couple of meters out. I watched them and, remember thinking; this is so beautiful, I am so happy, nothing is impossible and I love my life.

I will forever remember this moment, and now, so will you.

/Jenny

Amy's reflections of her time as an au pair

 

 

What is your overall impression on your time as an au pair?
I have a very positive overall impression on my time as an au pair and I am very  gladly involved in working for Cultural Care Au Pair with inspiring others to apply to the program. I believe that working as an au pair in a foreign country is one of the most beneficial jobs that you can take on as a young adult. Not only to you gain practice in meeting cultural differences, you also learn a lot about who you are. It is first when you engage with people that are different than yourself that you have a reference on who you truly are and what is important to you. It is a very important life lesson that will come in handy in many future situations in your life. Furthermore, it is an amazing and precious opportunity to be responsible for a child's/children's self-development. You are given to chance to experience moments that you thought were only possible to experience the day you become a parent yourself. The mutual learning that takes place between you and your host children will be something that you can feel very proud of and you grow twice yourself as you can recognize the appreciation in your host parents! In addition to the obvious positive self-development that the au pair program offers you develop your language skills, problem solving skills and social skills. You gain all this knowledge meanwhile living in an amazing country with tremendous opportunities!

Who would you recommend the au pair program to and why?
I would recommend the program to any young adult who has had prior positive experiences from working with or being engaged in any childcare activities. To anyone who can recognize the joy from working with children and who wants to take the chance to experience this joy on a truly personal level! You are being offered a unique chance to work with childcare on a more personal and emotional level than in many other job situations. In addition to the fundamentals of having an interest for childcare, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to have an abroad experience while at the same time having the safety pins of a host family and Cultural Care Au Pair staff to assist and support during challenging situations as well as for anyone who is interested in cultural exchange, languages and traveling!

Staying in touch
It will be 3 years this summer since I returned back to Sweden after my au pair experience. This June was the second time that I saw my much loved and missed host family again. As the course of life continues it has become unrealistic to expect contact on a day to day basis obviously, but I can gladly say that me and my host mom stay in contact at least on a monthly basis. I truly believe that the special relationship that you build with your host family during your time as an au pair is a relationship that has all the possibilities to last for life - with some effort of course! Other than my host family I have had the opportunity to visit 4 friends from four different European countries, this on a regular basis. Hence, it has given me bigger reasons to travel around Europe. I also stay in touch with au pair friends that are further away in South America and Australia - and I know for a fact that when the opportunity is given I will most certainly see them again. The fact that I today have friends and contacts throughout big parts of the world became evident when I spent an abroad semester in Munich, Germany this gone fall. I was on my feet traveling to Hungary (among other places) and on chance I contacted an old au pair friend in Budapest, in whom I had not had a lot of contact with since we both left America. It was so great and I was given a great time in Budapest seeing the city from a native's perspective while at the same time catching up on old memories!

What has been the impact of the au pair experience on me and my personality?
Where to start? I think that my dearest would in particular say that my self-confidence has developed in a positive way and I am more secure in myself, letting myself embrace things that earlier would scare me - such as change. I am more at ease with new situations and socially, there are few situations where I would feel uncomfortable. Because I have lived, seen and been in places where many of my Swedish friends have not I have a broader reference point in which I can relate things to. My first six months as an au pair, I took care of an autistic child. Today, 4 years later I feel secure in admitting that these 6 months changed my life to the better. "I'm open-minded" is probably one of the most common self-attribute someone would ascribe themselves with - so did I during my application process. Looking back, I wasn't really as open-minded as I thought, but I became during this experience and I am forever grateful.

Greetings from Andreas in Denmark!

Andreas currently works as a recruitment leader in Denmark - if you are an au pair from Denmark, there is a high chance you have or will be interviewed and coached by him! Andreas described few of his highlights from his time with his host family with the following text.

I traveled to Madison, WI in the Summer of 2011, where I took care of 4 great kids.
And in the fall we had three big family events.

At first we had my host dad who finished an Ironman in our hometown, the kids and I made a pretty banner for him, and went two blocks away from our house, where the bike trail went by twice. It was very touching to see him step off his bike both times to hug the kids, and greet the rest of us, and then afterwards undeterred got on the bike, and continued the race.

A month later on the 31st of October we had Halloween, where both the kids and I got dressed and went out trick-or-treating, my host family where great friends with another host family, with kids of similar age. Then the oldest kids went off together and the youngest walked with the other au pair and I. It was great seeing the smiles of the kids and happiness everywhere we went, just like Christmas morning. This was my first big American holiday with my family. And it was amazing to experience the spirit and how all the houses were decorated from scary to scariest.

The last thing I experienced in the fall of my year was Thanksgiving, at this point I was almost halfway through my year. When we had family gatherings, everybody showed up at my host family and everybody brought parts of the dinner. My host mother didn't like sport, which meant the big NFL thanksgiving game between Detroit and Green Bay was followed on the phone by all the men in the house, and when we got up and went into the kitchen to get food from the giant food fest we had in there, all the guys would talk about how well the was going (which Green Bay luckily ended up winning). After the dinner, the family took part with us, and we stayed at home watching a movie the entire family together.

That was three mayor parts of my great fall of my fantastic year, with my host family.

Hello from Malin!

Happy Thursday!

In 2009, I moved abroad to become an au pair in the USA and took care of three wonderful children (5, 7 and 9 years old). I started off my year as an au pair in Los Angeles, and after 10 amazing months together with my host family I had an opportunity to move with my host family across the USA to Cape Cod, approximately two hours outside of Boston, Massachusetts. When working as an au pair you really get the chance of exploring and living in the American culture, which is such an amazing part of our au pair program! Luckily, I had the chance to experience both the American culture on the West Coast as well as on the East Coast.

 

 

I have always loved spending time with children and when working as an au pair I truly got the opportunity to work with children full-time. Besides loving to work with children I learned a lot during my time as an au pair. I quickly realized that there was no day like the other when working as an au pair. Typical day at work with my host children usually took place in the playground, at the soccer field, baseball field, at the beach or just hang around at home doing homework or playing together.

During the last two years I have been working as a recruitment leader in Jönköping and Skövde region in Sweden (meaning that Malin is responsible for holding information meetings of our program as well as interviewing au pairs). Today, I’m currently one of the summer staff at the Stockholm office, if you call in and we get a chance to talk, don’t hesitate to ask any further questions about my time as an au pair. I love inspiring others to become an au pair in the USA since I believe it is one of the greatest things I have accomplished so far.

 

 

In the end of July I will be visiting my host family for the second time after my return back to Sweden, I’m super excited to see them again!

I hope you get a chance to look further into working as an au pair in the USA & I wish you an amazing rest of the summer!

Best wishes,

Malin

Greetings from Adelina!

Adelina currently works as a recruitment leader in Sweden - she is the one who meets and interviews our au pairs, holds information meetings and supports you during the application process along with our office - she has also been an au pair in the USA, and agreed to answer to few of our questions about being an au pair! Thank you so much Adelina!

What about the au pair program interested you?
I have always loved playing and working with kids. America has also been a country that I was interested of. Being able to work with kids and at the same time explore the country and experience the American culture was what made me apply and fulfill the program.

How did you choose your host family or how did you know they were the right match for you?
I talked to my host family over Skype many times just to be sure I got all my questions answered. And also so that my host family could be sure they wanted me to work for them. When I felt that I was confident talking to them and also that I could talk to them if I would have any kind of problem, that was when I was sure I wanted to choose them as my host family. The relationship I had with my host family was really good. They were like my second family. I was always included for the family activities, celebration of any holiday and vacations. I felt like home.

Who would you recommend the au pair program to and why?
I would recommend the au pair program to anyone who absolutely loves kids and likes to explore a new country and at the same time experience a different culture.

Who will you stay in touch with now that you have returned to your home county?
I still keep touch with my host family. I get pictures of the kids, we Skype/send videos to each other. I am invited to go and visit anytime I like.

I still keep touch with my American friends. I also keep touch with my au pair friends. My best friend from there is from Germany, I plan to visit her in her home country as soon as possible!

Friends for a lifetime!

Going as an au pair will give you the chance to meet new friends from all over the world.
I was an au pair from June 2012 to June 2013 and during my time as an au pair I got the chance to meet new friends and experience their culture as well.

I just went down to Austria to meet up with few of my au pair friends. It's so nice to know that even if the time keeps passing by, or if you haven’t seen them for one year, everything is still the same. You still feel like they are really close, and that you still have that strong connection with them.  The friends you get during your au pair year will always be there for you.
During my visit to Austria we were laughing about old memories, looking at pictures and had a great time. It’s great to have friends from all over the world: you have your own tour guide who can show you everything about their country! We went to museum, to a wedding where we needed to wear their national dress, castles, did some shopping and just sat at Starbucks and enjoyed a white chocolate mocca frappe in the sun. I can’t wait for them to come and visit Sweden so I can show them my country!