Hi! My name is Mia, and I’m an au pair from South Africa who went on an adventure to become an au pair in the Netherlands. As someone that loves adventuring and new experiences, I decided to embark on a new journey: becoming an au pair in the Netherlands. Read on if you’d like to know how I’m experiencing life as an au pair!
Challenging start of my adventure
The beginning of my adventure as an au pair in the Netherlands wasn’t always easy. I am now in my second month of living with my host family in Naarden, and even though my time here has been short (and pretty cold), it has been such a moving experience. Being out of my comfort-zone was challenging at first, but it has also been rewarding and genuinely so much fun. I’ve always seemed to think that an au pair has to be someone that instinctively loves children and nothing more. Of course as an au pair you have to love kids as most of your time is spent with them, but I’ve soon realized that the au pair experience is far more than that.
Taking care of kids? How!?
Initially, I was afraid that I would find being an au pair difficult, as I do not have as much experience as many others do. Not only did the thought of moving across the world and living with complete strangers scare me, but the idea of taking care of someone else’s children was daunting to me. It is a big responsibility, but with this responsibility comes a lot of growth and freedom to explore.
Nina.care helped me understand what my responsibilities as an au pair would be, which helped put my mind at ease when I started with this whole experience. As mentioned earlier, I was afraid of the responsibility that comes along with being an au pair. Having the agency there to help guide you can really make a difference in your mindset as an au pair.
Do I recommend becoming an au pair in the Netherlands?
If you’re thinking about joining the au pair experience, I would definitely recommend doing so, but also bear in mind that it’s not always just fun, and if you’re like me, you will sometimes feel homesick. The great thing is that you have an agency to help you deal with all of these kinds of emotions that come along with the experience and to organize events to keep you engaged in busy in your free time. In the short amount of time as an au pair in the Netherlands, I’ve also learned so much about myself, or I’ve re-learned things that I have forgotten.
See, the cool thing about being in a completely new environment is the fact that no-one knows who you are, and you don’t know them, and in the process of getting to know each other you get to know or rediscover yourself a lot better! The au pair experience allows you to submerge into a new culture and to absorb new ways of thinking, and it’s honestly so rewarding.
Want to read more experiences by other au pairs?
We are collecting all the experiences of our au pairs, so if you want to share your story – please do! Contact us by clicking this link. If you want to also read Manon’s story, she has had a exciting au pair adventure that started out very very badly…