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An open source contributor says:
The au pair title comes from the French term meaning "on a par" or "equal to", indicating that the relationship is intended to be one of equals: the au pair is intended to become a member of the family, albeit a temporary one, rather than a domestic servant. In the best circumstances, both parties benefit from learning about the other's culture.
Address:
Burnierstraat 38
2596 HW Den Haag
Netherlands
Though I've been here a total of five days, today (Monday) is my first official day on the job. The past few days consisted of getting to know the family, settling into my new home, jet lag recovery, becoming acquainted with the area on bike (the children have been excellent tour guides) and transitioning from old au pair to new. Mila, the previous au pair left Saturday for a 40 hour busride back home to the Ukraine. So now there are five of us in the house. Susan (the mom), Greetje (8-year-old daughter), Gabriella (7, almost 8-year-old foster child), Elody (21-year-old French/Dutch friend of family who is staying with us for five weeks while she interns with a local architecture firm) and I! All girls. Even Sara the anti-social cat. Except of course for Herman the Tit, the '88 Peugot 205 Susan bought for me to use from time to time. He's the only male in the family, but he stays outside on the street :)
Most days I will bike the children to school at 8:30 and pick them up at 3:00 and take them to their prospective activity for the rest of the afternoon. Which is either gymnastics, music lessons, field hockey, drama or playing at the house/friend's house until dinner time. Either Susan or I will cook. We eat dinner together, clean up and Susan spends time with the girls and puts them to bed. I am free in the evenings and on the weekends. Room and board are provided as well as insurance and many other benefits.
I am a bit spoiled at the moment with Elody here. She steps in to help in many instances: meals, playtime, cleanup, babysitting, etc. She is also very delightful company to have around and a new friend I can visit in France.
The family is wonderful. I would say so far that Susan's and my personality will get along fine. She's intelligent, generous, straight-forward, likes to drink wine, is quite funny and a bit "ATG" (against the grain). The children are creative, silly, polite and explore interests that I also enjoy. Good times are ahead.
One of the best parts about where we live is the location. Ten minutes to bike to the city center and 15 to bike to the beach. Sunday was our last day of summer and just-so-happened to also be the last day of sunshine for a while. Stefanie, my dear friend I met at L'abri who lives in Ede, came by train Sunday morning to visit a local American Protestant Church with me as well as spend the day with us all at the beach. It was a perfect day. We at lunch at Susan's brother's restaurant, we bathed in the sun, swam, and people-watched. European beaches are quite entertaining.
Goodbye Summer. Hello New Life...
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