Duties and responsibilities of an au pair will vary from family to family. A family with very young children will have very different needs to a family with school-going children or a family in which either the mother or the father is at home will have very different needs to a family in which both parents work full-time.
The most important thing when deciding what your au pair’s duties and responsibilities are is that you discuss and agree these with the au pair from the very beginning. The more the au pair knows about what is expected of her, the better the au pair's stay is likely to be.
Some duties may include:
- Getting the children ready for the day, washing and dressing them.
- Bringing the children to and from school.
- Bringing the children to after-school activities.
- Helping them with their homework.
- Playing games and doing activities such as painting, baking etc with your children.
- Bringing your children on outings such as to the park, playground, going for picnics, baby and toddler groups etc.
- Doing some grocery shopping.
- Preparing the children's meals and feeding them.
- Light housework such as tidying, cleaning, hoovering, emptying the dishwasher etc. An au pair should not be expected to do heavy housework such as mowing the lawn
This article was brought to you by Corinna at Kangaroo Au Pair