Why Host an Au Pair?

As a teacher, I enjoy educating RI families about au pair childcare and its outstanding benefits. Flexibility is the obvious benefit which initially attracts most Host Families. When your caregiver lives with you, the level of reliability and consistency increases exponentially!

Price is the second most obvious benefit, particularly when you have more than one child needing care. Compared to the cost of hiring a nanny or sending multiple children to daycare, hosting an au pair is more affordable! For an average of $322 per week, you can have up to 45 hours of flexible childcare. That can be two or three hours each morning and evening, or whatever you need to meet your schedule requirements, up to 10 hours in a day.

Your au pair comes into the country knowing nobody else, your family is the center of their new life, and you can guide them in the way that your family functions. Au pairs can introduce your family to a culture from your own family history and heritage, or open your eyes to a totally new and different cultural experience. Either way, it is a great opportunity to make connections between familial generations. Imagine your children and parents or grandparents speaking in their native tongue!

Speaking from an educational and global standpoint, many families realize the benefit of cultural immersion and cultural exchange that is inherently part of the Au Pair Program. Children studying a foreign language can have an at-home tutor who is a native speaker of the language they are learning.  Tolerance and acceptance of others' difference is an invaluable life lesson learned by au pairs and Host Families alike.

Childcare is the main task of your au pair, but another very real benefit to families is the household help an au pair can do for you. While he or she cannot be assigned to clean the household bathrooms or do parent's laundry, he or she can do kids' laundry, clean up kids' play areas, prepare and clean up light meals, and even drive kids to/from school, play dates or appointments.

Host Family blogger Summer Blackhurst highlights the cultural exchange aspect as a great benefit to Host Families in her blog, Childcare and Cultural Exchange. She describes the kind of families who are actually a good match for the Au Pair Program. Check it out! So if the price and flexibility, household help, educational and lifestyle benefits don't intrigue you, perhaps the benefits of cultural exchange are more appealing to your family needs.

Whatever the reason for you, au pair childcare is worth a look, and Go Au Pair is the agency you want. We will match other agency offers and are currently accepting new Host Families in the RI, CT and MA area. If you have an extra bedroom and need help around the house keeping up with the kids, consider hosting an au pair to meet your childcare needs. Call me, your Go Au Pair Local Area Representative, at 401.309.1925, or you can email me at jlowell@goaupair.com. My name is Joan Lowell and I live with my husband and children in Johnston, RI.