Anina, 21, tells her story

We've received some feedback from Anina, and would like to share it with you!

My stay as au-pair in the small family from Chelsea (2,5years) The most helpful in the beginning was the familie's warmth. Chelsea is adorable and not shy at all, her mother Rachel is easy-going and encouraged me to make myself confortable. I felt as a family member very soon. While my first days I missed proper instruction concerning Chelsea’s daily rituals (rules, nap, teethbrushing, eatingtimes) and my household duties. Little by little I found out by questioning the mother, who was just to busy to give me a the information. I experienced also that I am just used to a stricter daily course than this family. I missed that through my hole stay. The good thing about Rachel's easy going attidute is that she hardly complains about me forgetting sthing or doing something wrong. My working presence is very changeable. Rachel has a fulltimejob with changing shifts. Most days I get up between 8 and 9 a.m. If Chelsea is already awake we firstly eat breakfast together, afterwarts I give her a shower and and finally get myself ready. If she sleeps longer I get myself ready first. Then I usually wash all the dishes of the last evenings tea while Chelsea plays something on her own in the livingroom. She loves also to stick around me in the kittchen asking questions like "Whats this and that" or "Is this yours? mine?". She is most of the time a really good girl, well behaving. I love her especially when she says "I miss you" or "I love you". On Monday and Wednesday I bring her to the nursery for three hours. If the weather is good we play outside in the afternoon. If not, we are just doing some drawing or crafting activities. Beneath the general dishwashing I usually do one extra cleaning a day like vacuuming, wiping the kittchenfloor or cleaning the bathroom. I get also a lot of help from Chelsea's eleven years old sister Gwen, who just lives with them during her school holidays. She is a good babysitter for her age. My job isn't that hard. I am not visiting a language school nor were I attempting any other freetime activity being with other people. That made me feel very lonely. I didn't want to join a language course because I had have enough of school. I came with the intention to join something like a dancecourse. But I found it hard to get the knowledge where to go just by the internet. My family couldn't help me much either. When I realised I could also contact the au-pair agency, my stay was nearly proceeded to the end (It shortened because of my studyplace in switzerland). But I was lucky I could have my boyfriend and my sister visiting me. Next time I would join a luanguage course just for the fellowships sake. Now I am looking forward to get home soon. During this stay I have learned to appriciate my home much more. I know can better imagine what it means to be a mother in a country you not know naturally from your own childhood. I will miss many happy moments and jackies cooking abilities. *Due to privacy reasons we’ve changed the names of the children and the mother.