Au pairing for your family: 5 reasons

Au pairing has been an option for families for many years. But with new developments in online connections and global flexibility, its advantages are becoming more and more relevant and accessible to more and more families. 

Here are 5 reasons that your family can also benefit from the au pairing phenomenon:

1. An extra pair of hands makes things easier

For parents with kids and jobs, it often seems that there's simply too much to handle on the average day. It's wonderful to have a full life, but things need to be manageable, too! Having an au pair who participates in family life and shares some of the daily childcare tasks can give you that little bit of extra space you need to really enjoy all the different aspects of your busy life.

Related info: Is an au pair the helping hand you really need?

2. A new culture opens up new dimensions

A young person who comes to your family as an au pair is not just there to provide childcare. She (or he) is also on an adventure to learn about the culture of your country. This is the key to the win-win experience of au pairing. Your au pair helps with daily family life while getting the chance to experience another culture and improve language skills. And the cultural exchange goes in both directions. You and your kids start to learn about an international world and get exposure to a different culture and a different language right in your own home.

3. Another family member gives more flexibility

When a young person joins your family team as an au pair, you suddenly have completely new ways of managing the family schedule. Your au pair is there to help fill in the gaps that otherwise can make daily life so stressful. Getting the kids off to school or kindergarten in the morning, picking them up in the afternoon, handling appointments like music lessons or sports, making lunch or an early dinner for the kids − all this and more is easy to arrange together with an au pair who lives together with you in your home.

4. An au pair can enrich the lives of your kids

The connections that form between an au pair and your children can be very special. Au pairing is based on the idea that the au pair is really integrated into your family life. That means the au pair is there not just as a paid caregiver but as a young person who shares their insights and sense of life with your children. This can enable a whole new type of learning for your kids as they come to appreciate and admire someone who takes on a role like a big sister or brother.

Related info: Five ways an au pair can improve your family dynamic

5. You choose the au pair that fits best for you

When you search for an au pair on AuPairWorld, you get to review candidates and select a young person who really fits to the needs and the distinctive characteristics of your own family. This is a special opportunity to find someone who will match well with those characteristics and expand the childcare possibilities in your family with a style and personality that you get to choose.

Related info: 7 inside tips for a successful au pair search

AuPairWorld: Your au pairing resource 

As the largest and longest operating au pairing platform on the internet, AuPairWorld gives prospective au pairs and host families everything they need to plan an au pair stay together - simply, safely and directly.

• The website's homepage for host families gives families who are thinking about hosting an au pair for the first time a useful orientation about all the important aspects of an au pair stay
• The website's general search functionality gives families an overview of approximately 30,000 au pairs actively searching on the platform
• And with the Host Country Information section, families get detailed information about all of the formal arrangements for hosting an au pair in 22 different countries.

AuPairWorld is ready and waiting to serve you and your family as you move forward with your au pairing plans.