Six months of au pair’s relationship
We never came to know when we entered second half of our year with Mia, but as with most good things, time has flown. As we have approached this milestone, I have noticed an interesting trend in my conversations with friends and family. It turns out that no matter how often I shared success stories of host families in my cluster, they all remained skeptical that hosting an au pair from AuPairCare was really a great childcare option. I know this because so many of my recent conversation have started with people asking in a low, serious voice, “So, how are things going with Mia”. Clearly, they are expecting stories of misunderstandings, personality conflict, and general disappointment. Fortunately for us, there are none of these stories to tell.
What I am able to share is that this experience has in fact been better than I had anticipated. In my years as an Area Director, I have seen matches break up, and disagreements blow up over small issues. While it didn’t happen this way often, I knew it was a reality and had prepared myself for some level of disappointment. What has happened instead is that we have been pleasantly surprised by how easy it has all been. Sharing our second car with Mia? Never an issue, as she usually asks well in advance to use it, so we plan errands and car use accordingly. When she does ask last minute, she does so with such apology that we are happy to accommodate whenever possible. Free time? We always ask Mia to join us for dinner, and she usually does before heading out with friends or skyping with family at home. Weekends are the same – whether it is a trip or outing to the store, she probably comes along 50% of the time, giving us the perfect balance between spending free time with her and enjoying family time. While we are in part lucky to have an au pair from AuPairCare as easy going and personable as Mia, we also came into this experience with very realistic expectations. Nobody is perfect, mistakes will be made, and misunderstandings will happen. Instead of viewing each one as an ending, we look at it as a chance to learn and grow the relationship.
So how do we answer the question from our friends and family? With a loud and exhuberant “Fantastic!”. They tend to look surprised, followed by a “Reaaaallllyy….?.” Which I take as an opportunity to tell them about all the great things I didn’t expect and most importantly, how wonderful the last 6 months have been. So yes, hosting an au pair from AuPairCare really has been perfect for us.
Watch this http://www.youtube.com/user/AuPairCare1989 and know importance of strong relationship between you and your au pair from AuPairCare for healthy living.
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