au pair experience
Since the age of 16, I babysat for friends and family occasionally. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had started nannying for a very generous family of four boys. I went off to college, but still helped out occasionally. The next summer, I nannied for another family of four boys; then somehow the next family I cared for also had four boys… I was beginning to believe one day I will have four boys of my own.
With all this child care experience, and a desire to return to Spain after I had been sent home half way through my study abroad semester to Oviedo, Spain, I decided to apply to the interexchange au pair program online. This was early spring of 2021, and by April I was matched with a family who lived outside of Madrid. They had just two little girls, ages four and seven, I would have my own entire basement suite. My duties were to talk to them in English, pick them up from school/summer camp, and watch them occasionally on date nights. I made a pact with myself that I would travel somewhere different every single weekend, they thought I was kidding at first, then quickly realized I was serious. I ended up traveling to San Sebastian, Ibiza, road-tripped Andalusia, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Barcelona, Murcia, and Lanzarote. I had visits from my boyfriend and my father, but otherwise traveled alone.
Life during the week became regular and enjoyable, I practiced Spanish with videos and vocabulary, planned trips, and sometimes went into Madrid. The ride into Madrid was not easy. Technically, if I wasn’t dropped off at the metro I would have had to walk 20 minutes to the bus stop, ride 30 on the bus to the metro, then take another hour on the metro to get to central downtown Madrid. Then the same or even a tad longer for the trip back. Therefore, trips to Madrid were infrequent.
Eva taking a break.
The father worked in Madrid, and the mother worked from home. They had lived in South Africa for five years and had acquired their English fluency there, as did the seven year old who became very comfortable talking in English with me pretty soon after my arrival. The four year old was born there but they did not stay long enough for her to obtain any English. The unfortunate thing about the experience for me was that we spoke more English than Spanish. I understood talking in English with the girls, but due to the parents English abilities and my lesser Spanish abilities, they preferred to talk to me in English. After reminding them many times I somewhat gave up and focused on talking to people during my weekends traveling. My biggest piece of advise if you are looking to be an au pair for language practice is to find a family that speaks no English at all. I had a wonderful time with this family, they were very generous and laid back, and the girls were the cutest and sweetest. I look back on this summer as the best of my life actually, the traveling, the food, the culture, and the experience as an au pair were invaluable and I will always remember this experience fondly.
My family for the summer.
One thing the parents taught me that I found so important was to not take everything so seriously. I was watching the girls one night while the parents went out with some friends, we were laying in the parents bed watching frozen or something of that nature. The girls wanted a Cola-Cao (the Spanish version of Nesquik), I made them each one and told them to be very careful with it while they lay on their parents white comforter. Not even a minute after I gave it to them, the seven year old had sat it on the bed to which it instantly fell over spilling a full glass of chocolate milk on their bed. I, being quite frustrated after just telling her to be careful, actually yelled at her and told them to go to their rooms. They cried. I instantly felt bad. I texted the parents asking them where their backup bedding was and they nonchalantly said oh its no big deal, we’ll just do it when we get home. I realized then that thats what life is like with little kids. At that time, I hadn’t yet seen my sisters with their babies, or really anyone in my life, and the children I watched were for the most part older then 9 which made them somewhat more responsible. This instance stuck with me and made me realize that no matter what happens everything can be dealt with without freaking out and making someone (especially kids) feel bad.