What is an au pair?
What is an Au pair?
According to the official guidelines, an au pair is a boy or girl between the ages of 18 and 26 years, who temporarily lives with a host family within the framework of a cultural exchange.
She/he takes care of the children and does some light household chores around the house, in exchange for pocket money, board and lodging. The au pair must get the opportunity to follow a language course and to get to know the culture and to meet other au pairs or go to museums or visit interesting point of interests of the European countries.
As an au pair you will come and live with a Dutch family for a year and work a maximum of 30 hours a week. In Belgium this is 20 hours a week. You will communicate with your host family about the hours and days that you are expected to work and which duties are expected of you.
The chores of an au pair could be:
- Taking care of the children
- Playing with the children
- Baby-sitting
- Cooking simple meals
- Vacuum cleaning
- General tidying
- Doing the washing, ironing etc.
The term Au pair comes from the French language and literally means "on equal foot". An Au pair must be taken as a member of the family and be considered to take part in family matters. An au pair is therefore neither a cheap housemaid nor a professional nanny! However having an au pair in the house is for many busy households the perfect solution.
In the Netherlands an au pair can be placed with families without children as well. This offers a solution for instance for people who work, and want to have an au pair in their house for light housework or for elderly people who needs taking care of or need the company.