Why Choose an Au Pair: Child Care with a Foreign Flair

The Au Pair Program is a part of the U.S. Department of State's J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program. The State Department has guidelines to ensure both au pairs and host families enjoy a positive experience. For information, visit j1visa.state.gov/programs/au-pair.

Today's families face a variety of challenges on a daily basis. The days of a married couple raising 2.5 children with Dad working at an office and Mom staying home to take care of the children are largely a thing of the past, especially in the D.C. metropolitan area, which has the highest percentage of working mothers in the U.S. It is common now to see single parents raising children, or two parents working outside the home, with multiple children (sometimes twins or triplets) and several generations all living under one roof.

This "new normal" often features long days where it's difficult to find the time to get everything done. It should come as no surprise that more and more families are finding the answers with day care, nannies or au pairs. While each option has benefits and drawbacks, this article will focus on choosing an au pair, which gives families a unique cultural experience at an excellent value.

The Benefits of Choosing an Au Pair

Some of the benefits of choosing an au pair include guaranteed full-time child care, flexible payment options, cultural enrichment for you and your family, the opportunity to learn a second language, one-on-one attention and supervision for your children and flexible hours with a schedule set by you.

Three families that have chosen to get the extra help they need from an au pair are the Busso family from Alexandria, the Teel family from the District and the Walz family from Purcellville. Each family's story is unique, but taken as a whole, they provide a compelling picture of the new look of family life in 21st-century America.

Two Parents Working Full Time

Christina Busso and her husband Marshall have two children, Alexander (age 4) and Caroline (17 months). Both parents work full time, and Busso, who works from home, realized that finding the right child care situation might be a challenge. She was especially drawn to the idea of an au pair because it would allow her kids to stay at home with her. "I just couldn't imagine waking up my kids in the morning, bundling them up and dropping them off at someone else's house for child care and then coming home to work while I sat in our empty quiet house," she says. Busso also appreciated the benefits of the cultural exchange that an au pair could provide.

Busso and her family welcomed a Brazilian au pair named Bianca into their family, and they couldn't be happier with their decision. With more and more companies like Busso's allowing their employees to work from home, in-home child care has become a great option. She loves the flexible hours that come with having an au pair. She also appreciates being able to spend her breaks and lunch with her children. She is always there to kiss a boo-boo when someone gets hurt and that means the world to her.

A Single Mom

Late in life, D.C.'s Katie Jane Teel unexpectedly became a single mom when she got custody of her niece Sienna, who was still in diapers at the time. Having never spent much time around children before, let alone as a primary caregiver, Teel knew it would be important to get help. While she looked into a nanny first, she felt that welcoming an au pair was a more affordable option. She found the help she needed with Marisol, a Colombian au pair. Marisol quickly set up Teel and Sienna with a workable routine, providing structure and playtime, and even teaching Sienna Spanish. Teel describes Marisol as "… full of life and love. A take-charge person, she is very organized and without her, we'd be bouncing from one disaster to another. We just love her."

Five Children

With five children, including a trio of triplets, Loudoun County residents Linna and Robert Walz have a full household. To accommodate their large family, the Walzes wanted a home with lots of room, near a good school. They could not afford anything that met these criteria and their budget in the District where they worked, so they chose to live farther away. This gave them the home and the school they wanted, but the downside was a longer commute for both parents.

To help manage the daily child care of a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and three 4-year-olds, the Walzes have two au pairs: Christelle from South Africa and Christina from Ukraine. With so many kids, traditional child care would have been prohibitively expensive for the Walzes, and the au pair route was an easy one to take. But more important than money, the parents value the feeling that their au pairs are part of the family. They know that their children are better off because they can truly bond with their au pairs.

Au pairs Christelle and Christina work wonderfully together. They begin their day early by helping the two older children get ready and off to school. Back at home, they take care of the triplets together, providing them with learning games as well as indoor and outdoor playtime. They are able to individually take time off in the middle of the day for a short break.

Without au pairs, Walz knows that either she or her husband would have to leave their job, which would force them to downsize to a smaller home. In her own words, "Having au pairs in our home is more than just having a 'worker' to take care of children … it's about having a family member and friend. Now that we have au pairs, we could not imagine life without them."

Today's modern families may be taking on a more fast-paced world than ever before, but many are finding that the traditional benefits of raising children at home are still attainable thanks to au pairs. Each family's situation is unique. But whether you work from home or far away, whether you're a single parent or are part of a parenting team with a large, diverse family dynamic, having an au pair (or two) can help make your "new normal" work for you.