Be an Au Pair

Germany to Australia as an Au Pair
By Michael Scheltz
 
It's really funny when I look back at how I first became an Au Pair. Not a lot of men do the job as they really only give it to women. Well as a German, I really wanted to see the world and I wasn't going to let it get in my way that I was a man! I was from Berlin and had been to many different places in Europe, but I had dreams of seeing other countries that meant I had to travel long distances but it was always very expensive for somebody on my salary. I looked into ways that I could go to these countries for free, and well given there wasn't many options I soon found out about the job of an Au Pair. You don't really get to go to the other country for free, but you do get free accommodation and free food which is actually pretty good! So I looked into it a bit more and found that they were all girls who did the job. I thought why can't a man do it and decided to apply anyway and before I knew it I actually had a response from a lovely family called the Jones who lived in Sydney in Australia. I didn't know too much about Australia or Sydney as I had never really considered Australia as a place to visit before. I did remember when Sydney had the Olympics, but that was about it and I was pretty young when they were on. So the Jones family rang me up one time and spoke to me and told me more about their family. It was a man named Chris and his wife Samantha and they had a pretty big family. Well a very big family actually. They had 5 children which was made up of a baby, a toddler, a 3 year old, 5 year old and teenage girl. They sure had been a busy couple of the years! Well given that it would be my first actual Au Pair experience I thought to myself that it would be good to start off with a big family as I could then realise how hard it can be to do the job and it will give me some great experience in the long run. So all I had to do was pay for my plane ticket to Sydney and then I could start my job.
 
The Jones family picked me up at the airport in Sydney and took me to their place. It was in a place called Bondi which I knew had a pretty famous beach there so it was pretty amazing to live right near a beach. Not that I needed the beach as the Jones family had a very large pool that I could swim in whenever I wanted and an even more amazing garden that really amazed me. Both the Jones parents were in real estate so they had to go to work most of the time and they left me in charge which I did find of a bit of a challenge at first but I soon got used to it. I found it hard because there were so many kids to look after, but after I got the teenage girl and 5 year old off to school and the 3 year old off to day care it was me, the baby and the toddler which actually wasn't too bad as they were quite well behaved for young children. I would feed them, change them and read to them and even get their pets to come in and entertain them which I really think they enjoyed. It was also a great opportunity for me to brush up a bit on my English as it was pretty bad at the time and how the Jones family hired me is beyond me sometimes! After a few hours of looking after the kids I always had to make sure I did the cleaning around the house to make sure everything was in perfect condition and just the way the Jones left it before they went out. I was a pretty good cook too so I would sometimes even make them a bit of food and dinner for when they arrived home to make them happy and have a smile on their face which was a pretty good feeling when they arrived home. I also liked to surprise them sometimes so I would go down to the shop and buy them a present like a box of chocolates or some flowers and I think they really appreciated that which was good because I liked seeing them smile. I was finding this job to be quite good and I actually enjoyed it quite a lot more than I actually thought I would which was even better.
 
After a few months living with the Jones my time was soon coming to an end. The Jones though did a surprise for me which was actually quite good! Not only had they supplied me with free accommodation and fed me but now they were willing to do more for me which really made me a bit emotional! They took me into the city of Sydney where I got to experience so many famous things that I had seen on TV and in the books! Things like the Sydney Opera House which was an amazing building, and then I also got to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge which also was amazing to actually see in the flesh. They even bought me the chance to walk on the bridge itself and over the big famous metal arch which was really amazing to see the city from that height and experience such an amazing thing. I actually couldn't stop smiling all day when they did that for me and it was really one of the best times of my life.

Now while the family you stay with as an Au Pair might not offer you all of that, the fact that they will offer you free accommodation and free food really should be enough to entice you to go and work for them. It's something that you will be amazed at the fact that you have done it, and you get to see another country so yeah, you should do it and do it now!