The past few months have been difficult on many people due to Covid 19 shutdowns and fears.  This is even harder for au pairs who are separated from their families back in their home countries and also having to stay at home here in the U.S. and cancelling al their plans for their ear.  Simon has been making the best of it and here is his take on being an au pair:

What`s up dear post-au pair or whoever this reads! I am sure you are interested in  how life as an au pair in the USA looks like, that’s why you are reading this here. But before I will tell you how my life as an Au Pair was, I am going to introduce myself. My name is Simon, I am 20 years old, from Germany and have already spent  9 months in the USA. I arrived in August 2019 in New York and five days later at my host family in Minnesota. I take care of 2 kids, a 6 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. I`m going to extend my au pair year for 9 more months and will stay in the US until June 2021.

Let’s start from the beginning. I know becoming an au pair sounds super exciting and nice but also scary because you decide(d) to leave your home country, your friends and your family. I went through this too. Every au pair does. But with that sacrifice you are able to do things you probably couldn’t do while doing something else. And in addition to that, it is only a temporary sacrifice. You will fly back after a year (without extending) and see your friends and family again. As long as they didn’t come you during the year to visit you which is also possible. Because we are living in a pretty fortunate century we are able to see our loved ones through the phone which makes it a lot easier to stay here. You just should be sure that you probably miss a lot of birthdays, holidays, parties, meetings. You will probably not going to celebrate Christmas with your normal family and miss the birthday from your parents. If you can’t do that then an au pair isn’t your thing. I met au pairs in the trainings school who cancelled their year after 1-3 days. That shouldn’t happen. That’s extremely sad for the host family because they expect you to come. It’s a waste of time, money and a moral no-go in my eyes. You just need to be sure if you could do that for 1 year. Home sick gets everybody and I am sure you will get too. I was home sick as well. But you can overcome that and continue living your normal life or start your new life. One way I overcome homesickness every time is meeting with my friends I met here in the US. I try to focus on different things and don’t put much attention to my home country.

Okay now enough from the negative vibes and let`s get to the positive side. I love being an au pair. This year changed me so much and it does it with everybody. I speak English fluently, I visited places I dreamed of before (Canada, Hawaii, California, New York, Chicago), I met a lot of new people, I met new cultures and experienced so much more. I became really independent, gained more self confidence and changed personally to an adult who can now solve everything by his own. This year was totally worth it that is why I’m going to extend my year, just to get more experience etc. I recommend it to everybody to do an au pair year as long as you can handle children. I love it and I will never regret my decision being an au pair.

Unfortunately this year is the year the virus spread around and everybody had to stay at home. That tragic virus messed up many plans for au pairs to travel. My friends and family wanted to visit me this month but they can’t because of the virus. Many au pairs flew back to their home country because they couldn’t handle the situation which is totally understandable. Nobody was able to travel anymore which is the main thing for many au pairs. It is super hard for all of us. The possibility is pretty small, I would say, that this happens next year again so you shouldn’t be afraid haha. I’m optimistic that this whole thing is going to stop soon so we can live our normal life again.

Thursday, 21 May 2020 1:32 PM