My daily life as an Au pair

Going to the park

What does an Au pair do all day? For me it seems more exciting than it actually is, but I think it depends on the situation. For me personally it gets kind of the same thing everyday, so you just need to try to spice it up a little, this is what I do...



First of all, I have to apologize for not posting for such a long time. I just have been so busy with all kinds of stuff. I had to figure out what I want to do after my Au pair program, I want to finish my degree, but the question was where. Australia or the US? I think I figured it out, but I haven't made my final decision yet, I will let you know after my well deserved holiday ;) For the Au pair program I also needed to take classes, a total of 72 hours or 6 credits and I only started this month. I need to have all the hours before October, so that was pretty stressful. I also started exercising regularly, although the last 2 weeks I didn't really have time for that either.

I figured it might be interesting for you to know what I do as an Au pair and how my weeks mostly are. I look after twin boys, who are currently 10 months old. Luckily for me they aren't very mobile yet, which makes it a lot easier for me. I work 45 hours a week, and never more then 10 hours a day. I work Monday till Friday from about 9.00/9.30 till 5.00/5.30 and then usually the Saturday evening from 6.00 till 11.00.

This also happens... not so nice :S

During the week my days are pretty much the same, which can get a little bit boring sometimes, so I do try to mix it up a little bit. I start at 9.00 and then the babies usually have a nap at 10.00, usually for anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour, if I'm lucky they sleep longer. At 11.00 they get some milk and solid food, which will take me about 30 minutes to an hour as well. One of the babies never wants his bottle, so that always takes longer, although it has gotten better. When they where younger ( I have been with them for 6 months now) they would only have milk and he just refused to eat, so it would sometimes take me 1,5 hours to get him to take half the bottle before I gave up. After that we usually have some kind of play time, they are starting to crawl a little bit, so I just put them on the floor with some toys and play with them. One of them doesn't really crawl at all, but today he was standing on his own :) He can't get up by himself yet, so he was holding one of my fingers at first and then he just let go and he was standing, until he lost his balance haha. He gets really mad if you put him down, he just wants to stand all the time, it's so cute!

Usually they have another nap at 1, or sometimes I go outside with them around that time. There is another Au pair living pretty close by, who looks after a baby their age, so we go to the park together every now and then. Sometimes we have play dates at her house, but now the weather is nicer it's so much easier to do it outside. So usually we go to the playground in Golden Gate Park, which is really nice, especially when it's sunny. Then they have a bottle at 2 and some cereal, which doesn't take as long. And then they usually have another nap between 3 and 4, but it depends on what we have done during the day. If I haven't gone out with them around one, I usually go after they had their bottle at 2, and just sit in the park or walk around until they fall asleep in the stroller. My host mom comes home between 5 and 5.30 and then she takes over.

Sorry this is as much as you get to see of the babies, I don't want to put them all over the internet..

So that is what my job is like during the week. For the Au pair program you also need to take a class for 72 hours or 6 credits. Credit classes are ridiculously expensive, like $200 per credit, so I wanted to take a free non-credit class. Unfortunately there was only one option left for me which was ESL (English as a Second Language), I'm in the highest level, but it is super boring! Things we learn are for example; how to use 'ow', 'shoot', 'uh-oh', and 'ugh', and have to do to this for 72 hours. Hopefully I will be able to finish those hours before June, so I got it over with. This class is 4 times a week from Monday till Thursday from 6.30 till 8.45, so it's pretty long, which is also good, because you can do 10 hours a week.

In the weekend I work 3 Saturdays a month in the evening from 6-11 and the rest of the weekend I'm off. I usually just hang out somewhere with other Au pairs, go for lunch, or go on a trip. Sometimes I just stay home because I'm tired and just don't want to do anything haha ;) I guess this is pretty much my daily life, and maybe I should appreciate it a bit more, but for me it has become my 'normal' life already and doesn't seem that special, although it probably is.

San Francisco, from Twin Peaks in my weekend off :)

What do you do in your daily life? Or what would you like to do?