After spending hours and hours going back and forth with potential new au pair candidates a few years ago, I finally realized that the right au pair will recognize herself if she gets a good look into the experience of being an au pair in our home.
I asked my past au pair's to write an honest letter about their experience with us, so that, after reading it, you will probably have a good idea if we're a good potential family for you.
You can read our most recent au pair, Lea's letter, as well as our last au pair, Barbara's letter and our second au pair, Ramona's letter here and our first au pair, Micha's letter here.
In addition to letter's from Lea, Barbara, Ramona and Michaela please take a look at our somewhat outdate family picture blog and pictures of our house for my airbnb listing (it isn't always this clean but we try, and my au pair's help me a lot).
If you think we could have a great year together, please contact me at lists4lisa at gmail dot com.
-Lisa
In addition to letter's from Lea, Barbara, Ramona and Michaela please take a look at our somewhat outdate family picture blog and pictures of our house for my airbnb listing (it isn't always this clean but we try, and my au pair's help me a lot).
If you think we could have a great year together, please contact me at lists4lisa at gmail dot com.
-Lisa
PS. I dearly love each of these girls and appreciate all they contributed to our lives while they lived with us. I'm also grateful that we have each of them in our lives still and I suspect for many years to come and we all consider them part of our extended family.
PPS. I asked the girls to write an honest letter with the good and the bad but looking over the letters they didn't write much that is negative. I think that is largely because we spent a lot of time making sure to have a good fit. Also, these girls, like me, understand that every situation and every person has positives and negatives and so, I guess, they never held the negatives too much against me. In an attempt to give a full picture, here are some of the things which might be seen as negatives (especially for the wrong person; for the right person, some though not all, may even seem appealing).
a) Our house is busy! This means that it's sometimes loud, chaotic and disorganized. It can be a lot of fun but it can also be work to prepare, manage and organize for events, classes and social gatherings.
b) I am disorganized. Combined with being busy this means that my au pairs often find themselves in the position of helping me find my keys, pushing me out the door to make sure I'm not late and helping find sanity and calm etc. This kind of skill and help is SO appreciated by me.
c) Our kids are wonderful but can be challenging. (I suspect this is true of most kids but I get worried when I read au pair applications that say they love kids because they're always smiling and always fun.) Kaizen is 13 and a boy and sometimes he needs reminders mostly related to social skills. He can challenge patience by "not hearing" or "forgetting". Soleil is intense and emotional and dramatic. She can wear a person out with her persistence. She is also fickle and might love you one minute and tell you to "go away" the next. Yet they both have extreme charms.
d) We are an unusual family in many ways. We have a lovely and privileged life but we don't live the typical American Dream. We don't have a TV and we are thoughtful and careful about mainstream influences of most kinds. We like to go our own way and sometimes that's very different from the pack. For a very conservative person we are very likely to seem weird. And for someone looking to experience Martha Stewart-like American holidays they may be disappointed in our company.
e) We try very hard to have a healthy diet and to teach our kids about nutrition. Joe and I try to eat mostly good quality proteins and lots of vegetables. Joe is often trying some new unusual food approach and so, often has to make his own food separate from the rest of us. We try to keep sugar, white bread and pasta to a minimum. Our kids challenge this but we still try to encourage love of a whole food diet in them and will need your contribution.
PPS. I asked the girls to write an honest letter with the good and the bad but looking over the letters they didn't write much that is negative. I think that is largely because we spent a lot of time making sure to have a good fit. Also, these girls, like me, understand that every situation and every person has positives and negatives and so, I guess, they never held the negatives too much against me. In an attempt to give a full picture, here are some of the things which might be seen as negatives (especially for the wrong person; for the right person, some though not all, may even seem appealing).
a) Our house is busy! This means that it's sometimes loud, chaotic and disorganized. It can be a lot of fun but it can also be work to prepare, manage and organize for events, classes and social gatherings.
b) I am disorganized. Combined with being busy this means that my au pairs often find themselves in the position of helping me find my keys, pushing me out the door to make sure I'm not late and helping find sanity and calm etc. This kind of skill and help is SO appreciated by me.
c) Our kids are wonderful but can be challenging. (I suspect this is true of most kids but I get worried when I read au pair applications that say they love kids because they're always smiling and always fun.) Kaizen is 13 and a boy and sometimes he needs reminders mostly related to social skills. He can challenge patience by "not hearing" or "forgetting". Soleil is intense and emotional and dramatic. She can wear a person out with her persistence. She is also fickle and might love you one minute and tell you to "go away" the next. Yet they both have extreme charms.
d) We are an unusual family in many ways. We have a lovely and privileged life but we don't live the typical American Dream. We don't have a TV and we are thoughtful and careful about mainstream influences of most kinds. We like to go our own way and sometimes that's very different from the pack. For a very conservative person we are very likely to seem weird. And for someone looking to experience Martha Stewart-like American holidays they may be disappointed in our company.
e) We try very hard to have a healthy diet and to teach our kids about nutrition. Joe and I try to eat mostly good quality proteins and lots of vegetables. Joe is often trying some new unusual food approach and so, often has to make his own food separate from the rest of us. We try to keep sugar, white bread and pasta to a minimum. Our kids challenge this but we still try to encourage love of a whole food diet in them and will need your contribution.
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