If you are interested in being an au pair, you’d obviously be curious to know what to expect on a day to day basis. While it’s quite likely that your experiences will be very different from those of other au pairs, their experiences will guide you and help you manage your expectations.
Generally, however, a typical day doesn’t exist because your schedule will change mostly depending on the host family’s schedule, the time of the year, where they live, and your experience/ plans, among other factors.
But even with the unknowns, it’s always important to have some sort of schedule or managed expectations.
So, when researching about what it takes to be an au pair, always narrow down your search to the country and town you will be visiting. Doing this makes it easier for you to filter through past reviews from other au pairs, and you will have a better idea of what to expect.
Here is an example of a typical (more or less) day in the life of an au pair in most parts of the world. Note that the daily schedule may change depending on whether you have a part-time job you already signed up for and your responsibilities, as per the host. So, before we look at how a typical day looks like, let’s first go through the responsibilities of an au pair.
- Getting the host’s children ready for the day – dressing and breakfast
- Dropping and picking the kids to and from school
- Helping the kids with after-school activities
- Playing with the kids and helping them with their homework
- Cooking and preparing them
- Taking the kids to outings such as the beach, playgroup, or the playground.
- Cleaning and generally keeping every bit of the kitchen and common areas clean
- Loading/ unloading laundry in the washing machine, Ironing the kids’ clothes and putting these clothes away
- Vacuuming the kids’ bedroom and the communal areas
- Light shopping
- Walking and feeding pets
- Washing dishes
Note that where an au pair is responsible for all these roles or most of them, they’d receive some pocket money.
Typical Day
- Wake Up – often, wake up time is 7.30 am for most au pairs in most parts of the world. In most cases, an au pair would sleep in the guest bedroom, which is either part of the main house or separate from the main house. If your arrangement involves all the roles above or rather most, especially childcare, then you’d have to get yourself ready fast and then get the host’s child (ren) ready for school, dressing, and breakfast.
- Drop the kids to school or walk them to school – 8.15 am
- Your Time – after 9.00 am. In most cases and if you don’t have house chores to take care of, you’d use the hours from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm to do your own stuff. Whether this means exploring the country of heading out for your side hustle or school project, this is your prime time.
- Getting ready for tomorrow – 1.00 pm to 2:30 pm. Having had time to take care of your business in the morning, you’d use this time to get ready for the next day. This often means preparing lunches, tidying up the communal areas, and the kids’ bedrooms.
- Pick up – 2:30pm. If this is part of your job description, you’d have to go get the kids from school then prepare their snack, before helping them with homework. Note that if you are going to help the kids with their homework, then you have to have taken a test to show that you are familiar with their education system, etc.
- Fun time – 4.15 pm. At this time, you’d help the kids with anything that’s regarded as fun, artsy, or relaxing.
- Cooking – 5.00 pm. You may be required to cook by yourself or alongside your host. If it’s just you and the kids check out healthy options of frozen meals for kids at https://yummyspoonfuls.com/healthy-frozen-meals-kids-toddlers.
- Dinner – 6.30 pm – time for dinner
- Bed Time – 8.00 pm – time to get the kids ready for their bedtime, and to read them a bedtime story.
Weekends – your schedule might be open or not, depending, again on your agreement with the host, although most au pairs have the weekends all to themselves.
Note that your schedule may change depending on your agreement with the host family. Often, most of the house chores and childminding are not included if you don’t get paid anything in return.