What You Need to Know About Au Pairing

Guest post by: Veronica Mazzocco

Being young means loving adventure, but most of the time, it also means not having the way to afford it.

And while I am still nowadays struggling with making my ends meet, I have found one of the ways you can live your experience abroad – aupairing.

I spent a whole summer in Spain learning Spanish, speaking English, meeting tons of people, and visiting as many cities as possible.

And even if the program is well-known around the world, many people are still unaware of what it exactly means.

So, if you are among these, let me introduce you to this amazing and life-changing experience.

Au Pairing article

An aupair is a young adult from a country who travels abroad to help a family by taking care of the kids while the parents are working. The girl (or the guy – there is a growing number of young males taking part of it) will have a preset schedule with a certain amount of hours they’re supposed to work in exchange of free accommodation and food, as well as pocket money. This will allow you to both feel a member of the family and have your own independence and reward for the work you’ve been doing.

Au Pairing article

There are different options to apply for the program. You can either get in touch with an agency  – it may be mandatory for certain countries such as the Netherlands or the United States – or sign up in one of the several platforms available online, such as Aupair World.

The agency I went to Spain with was ServiHogar, and Laura, the owner of the agency, helped me and was available for all my necessities and my doubts.

Au Pairing article
Au Pairing article

Furthermore, the main difference between the two alternatives is that, with the websites, you have to do everything on your own, while agencies apply certain filters and just give you a smaller amount of families. The first experience I had was with an agency, and the process was much simpler than when I started looking for a second time on those platforms – I spent hours reading all profiles.

A tip that I can give you, is to do a little research and figure out whether there are agencies in the country you would like to go that don’t charge a fee for incoming aupairs.

It all seems great, but let’s be honest – there are some cons, too. At least once, you’ll miss your friends or family, and you might find it difficult to make friends. You probably won’t speak fluently the language you’re living in and staying for quite a long time. What to do, then?

 

Well, you should know that you’re not the only one. There usually are a lot more aupairs in the city you’re staying. Therefore my advice for you is to start looking on Facebook and talk to the previous aupair of the family to start creating a network of new friendships.

Au Pairing article

To sum it up, this is the key information you need to start searching and applying for what could be one of the best experiences ever.

You’d be traveling, learning a new language, and living in a different culture thanks to the family you’ll work for. And do not forget all the amazing relationship you’ll create that will last despite the long distances across the world.

St Lucia’s Gros Piton
Veronica Mazzocco

Veronica Mazzocco

Guest Blogger

VERONICA is a 21-year-old Italian wanderer and linguistic student. Deeply in love with Spain, she started traveling when she was 17 thanks to the aupair program and couldn’t stop.

 

Words and photos are her passions and she shares them on her Instagram and blog.

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