From Auxiliar to Au Pair

While working as an auxiliar for the Communidad de Madrid is a pretty good gig (16 hour, four day work weeks with tons of school vacations is sweet, right), it leaves you unemployed for the summer. For those of us who return year after year, we are all too familiar with the struggle of finding temporary work for the summer that can also pay for our hefty Madrid monthly rent payments. But on the other hand, Madrid is the Devil’s inferno in July and August, with temperatures usually between 35 and 40 degrees. This summer, I was lucky enough to experience a week of 40, 41, and 42–for my Fahrenheit friends, that means 106-degree weather. Not fun, ESPECIALLY when you live on a third-floor apartment with NO AC. Yup, welcome to Europe. So, how do you survive the blazing heat in the center of Spain besides taking four cold showers a day and laying naked on the tile floor? Well, you get the hell out as fast as you can before it gets worse.

And that, my fellow readers, is how I ended up in Langen (Hessen), Germany for the summer of 2019. Langen is a suburb about 25 minutes south of Frankfurt. There’s really not much to do here, but there’s a really cool pool with a huge waterslide and diving area.

Other than that, I spent my free time going in and out of Frankfurt, took a weekend trip to Amsterdam to visit my friends from college (more on that later) and took a trip to the Rhine Valley, Düsseldorf, and Cologne with my boyfriend (more on that later, too).

How did I survive the rest of my time here? Well, besides going to the pool, doing crafts, and playing with the kids, I binged-watched the Sopranos and Orange is the New Black. I’m also reading a book called “The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared,” which is a really funny read.

Kids in Germany start school the second week of August, so my time here is almost finished. So, my advice to you who are considering au paring is as follows:

• Consider joining an AuPair Facebook group for your area BEFORE you leave, that way chances are you will most likely be approved before you arrive at your destination. I waited until I got here, and had to wait until the halfway point of my stay, which only left me a few weeks to branch out and meet other people. Better late than never though, for sure.
• Come with lots and lots of patience–not only for the children, but for the family, too. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we are not only looking after children, but we are living in another family’s home, which comes with its own set of rules and mannerisms. Try your best to see it as a cultural difference (for example, my 11-year-old girl was going to bed at 8:30, which is the same time the 5-year-old I babysit in Spain eats dinner), and respect it.
• Make sure to establish your roles and responsibilities with your family from the start so there is no confusion down the road. And don’t forget or be afraid to communicate with them if you feel like something needs to be addressed.

Best of luck on your journey 🙂