The Lasting Impact of Au Pair Child Care

October 21, 2022

This post is sponsored by our partners at Au Pair in America.

Hosting an au pair with Au Pair in America has a lot of benefits. Your family receives flexible, live-in child care assistance (up to 45 hours per week and 10 hours per day) and a unique cultural exchange experience. As a federally regulated program, au pairs can live with their host family for one year, with the option to extend their stay for an additional 12 months.

Au Pair But what happens when your au pair needs to return home? We found that many of our host families and au pairs share an enduring bond. This is the lasting impact of au pair child care.

“They’re our friends. They’re our family.”

Seth, an Au Pair in America host dad from Cincinnati, grew up in a household that hosted a total of 7 au pairs. Seth and his family spent 3 weeks in France visiting his childhood au pairs — as well as the au pairs he and his wife have hosted as their children grow.

Au Pair with family “One of my au pairs when I was a kid had a daughter. Her daughter became our au pair – so two generations of the same family,” Seth explains. “They really are part of our extended family to this day. The au pairs that I grew up with still come to the United States, now with their kids and they’ll stay with us… because they’re our friends. They’re our family.”

Seth’s incredible story about staying connected to his childhood au pairs is more common than you might think. In a survey of children raised in families hosting au pairs, 95% of respondents said they remained in contact with their former au pair(s).

Cassie from Illinois also reconnected with nine of her au pairs from childhood on a reunion trip to France. “Leading by example with a love for embracing new people and cultures, each au pair left a perceptible mark on how we grew up,” Cassie writes. “They’ve all joined the sphere of our nuclear family.”

“It felt like coming home”: What past au pairs have to say about staying in touch.

Our former au pairs also express gratitude for the lasting connections formed with their former host families. Jane, a former Au Pair in America au pair from Germany, has reunited with her old host family several times. “What I cherish most today is the fact that from 2008 on we have always managed to keep in touch. It’s incredible to watch the kids grow up and to see how they’ve changed over the years,” Jane reflects.

“I love traveling to see them as often as I can and have been lucky enough to have been able to visit other parts of America in the company of the family,” explains Tammy, a British au pair who lived with her host family in the United States back in 1987. “I have been fortunate enough to be welcomed into their extended families too; I still have gifts from the grandparents to this day.”

Katrin, a German au pair hosted in Illinois in 1998, has welcomed her former host family into her home overseas several times. “Now that [the host children] grow up, they also come to visit and travel Germany and Europe. They all know that they have a home abroad, just as I have a home in the U.S.”

Au Pair host family Both former host families and au pairs can expand their global families for years to come. Tammy, for example, had the special experience of meeting her former host child’s son. Meanwhile, Katrin had the opportunity to visit her host family on several occasions – most recently with her husband and her own son.

“It might not be a lot in eighteen years that I went to visit my host family, but whenever I did visit, it felt like coming home. I know I am welcome there at any time and that they love my kids just as much as I love my not-so-little-anymore host kids,” Katrin states.

Build global bonds that can last a lifetime.