Where to Au Pair
 

I have 4 au pair offers to choose from and i have no idea where to go. I will be starting in late September. I have offers from Copenhagen, Zurich, Rome and Prague. Help me out on where I should go and why if you have an opinion!! Thanks!!!:afro:

4? That's sweet! I've never au paired but I've always wanted to (even tho I'm not a big fan of kids, weird I know)

All the places sound great. I have friends in Copenhagen and they love it there, tho they say it is expensive. Who's giving the best deal and who's kids do you like the most? If anything you can always put names in a hat and draw them (I'm sorta kidding :rolleyes:)

I've aupaired before and you need to ask a lot of questions and really know the people you will be working for. Not only that, you need to find out exactly how many hours of work is expected of you, how much the salary is, when you will be getting paid (bi-monthly, monthly, weekly) how old the children are, what the family's lifestyle is like, when is your free time to travel...It is not an easy job but it is a rewarding one if you are with a family that you click with.

Once you get answers to all those questions then perhaps you will better know where you should go.

Congrats on all those offers though, thats great!

what company did you go through? I thought it was pretty impossible for a guy to find an au pair job?

First off, I have already been an Au Pair. This is my third time doing this. And I did not go through an agency, I just went through the website, aupairworld.net. It is awesome and you will for sure 100% get a job. Check it out.

Oohh. Oops. Didn't realize I was talking to a "seasoned professional!"

thanks! I will totally check that out. Would I make enough money to pay bills in the states?

I would totally live in Rome. Just to say I lived in Rome would be amazing.

I personally would choose Prague since it is the gateway to Eastern Europe. Dunno how much you're getting paid since you have experience, but EE is cheap, which is good cause au pair salaries are not that great. Plus its a fascinating region.

Jake - I dunno how much your bills are but I had two au pair offers, one for 340 euro/month and another for 240 euro/month. Which is basically squat. The 240 euro family asked me to work for them and I said yes but I just turned them down because even though it would solve my short term problem of wanting to go back to Europe, I would be tied to them for a year (I'm a committmentphobe!) and at the end of that year I would be back to square one: broke! I need a more long term solution. I don't know what that is yet but I'm working on it.

Aupairing is not really a job to go for if you want or need to make money...It is supposed to be a sort of "cultural exchange" and you get paid pocket money, usually about $150 US per week. So basically...Not much. But you are supposed to get ample free time to travel and see the country you decided to go to...

The one problem that I did experience with aupairing was that the family that hired me basically thought they hired a full time nanny and housekeeper and for $150 bucks a week...I just wasn't too keen to work so hard for so little money. I decided to just really become a nanny and make the big bucks!