A Day in the Life of an Au Pair

This week’s post is going to give you all a deeper insight into my daily life as an Au Pair.  I thought it would be fun to run you through a typical day in my life to show you how much (or sometimes how little!) I get up to.  The business of my days and weeks alters depending on whether C and L are staying at their mum’s or their dad’s for the week.  When they are staying with their dad, my days tend to be busier due to the number of tasks that I need to complete.  However, when they are staying with their mum, I have a lot more free time, especially in the mornings, to potter about however I choose!  So, I think it would be best to walk you through a day in my life, showing you what I get up to when the kids are at their mum’s and when they are at their dad’s!

 

I wake up to the sound of my alarm at 06:45, but this is usually a huge shock to the system and I tend to snooze my alarm for at least fifteen minutes or so.  The extra time in bed allows me to mentally prepare myself for the cold morning air.  I’m a morning showerer, so after I finally peel my body from the comfort of my bed, I hop straight into the shower to, well, shower.  From there I’ll usually dry my hair, complete my skincare and makeup routine, then head downstairs for breakfast.  At the moment I’ve harboured a small obsession with yoghurt bowls.  My favourite yoghurt bowl is comprised of Alpro plain yoghurt (dairy-free of course), Honey Cheerios/Bran Flakes, frozen raspberries, honey and almond butter.  However, most of the time I actually crawl back into bed and watch Tiktoks for ten, or more like twenty, minutes before I get myself ready for the day.  Writing this down is showing me how lazy I can be, but more so that I’m a complete and utter sloth in the mornings – definitely not a morning person!  

 

Lionel leaves for work at about 07:45 each morning, meaning that he wakes up C and L for school and gets breakfast prepared for the children and himself.  C’s school schedule is quite irregular; there are some days where she starts at 08:30, but others where she starts at 09:30, and sometimes at 10:00!  She started at secondary school in September, which accounts for the slightly strange school schedule.  On the days where its an early start, she and Lionel will leave the house at the same time for their morning commute into the city.  However, on the other days I am responsible for ensuring that her school bag is packed correctly, with all the books required for the lessons of the day, and her PE kit, if needed.  And for ensuring she leaves the house on time!

L, on the other hand, starts school at the same time every day (thank God for an easier schedule to remember).  We usually aim to leave the house by around 08:15 to get to the school at 08:25ish.  Luckily, his school is only a ten-minute walk, and quicker if L takes his scooter and I have my running shoes on!  I always really enjoy my morning walk to school with L.  We talk about anything and everything; one morning we were discussing the logistics of going to the bathroom in space, focussing particularly on floating poo particles!  

 

After dropping L off outside the school gate, the day becomes my own until school pick-up at 15:20.  Although I have all of this free time during the day, its not as if I can binge watch New Girl on Netflix for six hours.  When I first moved here to start working as an Au Pair, I felt a little aimless during the day because I hadn’t found an outlet to apply myself, or an objective to work towards.  So I ended up wasting a lot of time doing the unthinkable: binge-watching Netflix shows and spending all of my money on coffees while walking around West London.  This worked out ok for me at the start because I was still getting used to the area, and the job.  Now, my days look a little different.

 

If the weather’s nice in the morning I’ll go for a run around Fulham to awaken my mind and warm up my bones for the day ahead.  I started running by using the NHS ‘Couch to 5K’ app and really enjoy it (which is surprising because who actually gets that much of a buzz from running in the cold).  But, lets face it; it isn’t often that I wake up in the morning with the bursting desire of going on a run.  Normally I head straight to a coffee shop after the school run to energise myself by way of consuming caffeine rather than self-energising by the release of exercise endorphins.  By the time I’ve grabbed my morning latte or flat white (or filter coffee if I’m running low on money) it’s 09:30; I always bring my Kindle with me wherever I go, so my morning coffee stop almost always turns into my morning coffee stop and reading session.  

 

Upon returning back to the house, I’ll make myself un autre café (another coffee) to ease the impending mountain of writing that I have ahead of me.  At the end of October I started a new side hustle that I’ve briefly touched on in a blog post before.  My role is titled a ‘Book Summariser’ for a company called Guide Education.  I get sent a new book at the beginning of each week that I have to summarise into key ideas along with interactive questions to accompany the summary.  These summaries will eventually get turned into short summative video clips for the intended audience, be it teachers, students, parents etc.  For me it’s the perfect side hustle as, essentially, I am getting paid to learn something new!  It’s also my first paid writing job, which, although it’s a summarising job, is still exciting for me to work towards writing deadlines (I’m a bit rusty since graduating from University)!  It helps me to pad out my day as I can, at times, get a bit stir crazy from staying in the house all day on my own!  

 

As lunchtime rolls around, about 1pm for me, I close my laptop and set about making myself a filling, but healthy, lunch.  I am a complete sucker for poached eggs, typing this now is quite literally making me salivate, so that is my go-to at lunchtime.  However I’m also known to absolutely devour a loaded sweet potato or some type of fried rice. After lunch if I have any chores to do, like laundry, then I’ll get those out of the way.  But, more often than not, I leave all of my laundry to pile up for a couple of weeks (can you believe that I don’t run out of clothes to wear?), so instead of doing my chores I like to take myself out on a walk before I return to the school to collect L.  Recently I’ve enjoyed walking out of the city towards Putney, crossing Putney Bridge.  I also thoroughly enjoy walking down the New King’s Road towards Sloane Square so I can ogle at the rich city folk.  After all, it is very ‘Made in Chelsea’ on the New King’s Road.  Maybe one day I’ll bump into Jamie Laing, but so far I’ve not had the pleasure.

 

Returning from my walk and clocking up a good 10,000 or so steps, it’s time for me to pick up L from school.  I absolutely ADORE this time of day because it’s the time where I get to hang out with all of the other nannies and Au Pairs at the park!  L and I inevitably end up at the park every afternoon; he loves playing with his closest friends and I love chatting to like-minded people who have come to be some of my really close friends here!  It is so refreshing to hear what the other Au Pairs and nannies have been getting up to, but it’s also a much-needed time to unload our stresses and worries off onto one another – in the best way possible!  

As this is my first time working in this position it is nice to hear what is expected of others also in my role so I can compare the daily tasks we have to carry out and the ins and outs of their family’s lives.  From chitchatting with the girls at the park I’ve come to the realisation that I truly lucked out with the family that I’m paired with.  My relationship with the children is perfect; we get along so well and they’re really respectful and well mannered.  We’re always laughing and joking together, and this amicable relationship stems from the fact that I genuinely like the children.  You cannot force a good relationship with children – you have to actually enjoy playing and chatting with them!  I also really get on well with Lionel and Marie, C and L’s parents.  They are so welcoming and kind; when there’s an issue they don’t belittle me or treat me as if I’m beneath them.  It is definitely a healthy relationship.  

Unfortunately some of the other Au Pairs are having a slightly rougher time of it.  They have a lot more responsibilities; one of my close friends is basically a private chef for her family!  And some of the other children misbehave quite often, calling their Au Pair names like ‘Servant’, which is, quite frankly, appalling.  I definitely wouldn’t be able to put up with that.

 

L usually stays at the park for an hour or so at the moment because the nights are closing in – can anyone else believe it’s dark at twenty minutes past four?!  I know this happens every year but it still manages to surprise me. At 16:20, sometimes a little bit later if L is enjoying himself, we head back home.  C usually arrives home just after half past four if she finishes school at four o’clock, so we meet her outside the front door.  As soon as we’ve taken off our coats and shoes the kids are straight into the kitchen to take their after-school snack.  This is usually a Madeleine cake or a chocolate covered rice cake with a piece of fruit.  However, sometimes they get creative with their snacks.  The other week they wanted some Nutella on toast, but we’d run out, so instead they decided to sprinkle some Cadbury hot chocolate powder over a slice of buttered toast.  L actually heaped the stuff atop the bread (I don’t think you could call his method ‘sprinkling’), resulting in a small coughing fit.  He was fine after a glass of water!  

 

After snack time is out of the way, the focus goes from eating to studying.  From 16:45 until around 17:45 I sit down with the kids to get their homework done.  L goes to a bilingual school meaning that he switches from English lessons one week, to French lessons the next.  His homework corresponds with his schooling style, meaning that I’m a lot more helpful when he has English homework to do.  I’ve learnt that I’m absolutely no help whatsoever when it comes to French math homework – there’s a completely different method for division to the English way!  

C is a lot more independent when it comes to her homework as she is at secondary school and the amount of work has really ramped up in comparison to the work she got assigned last year.  I’m, again, most helpful when it comes to her English homework, specialising in sentence structure, spelling and creative writing.  One of my favourite homework tasks of C’s was to memorise one of Walter de la Mare’s poems.  To help her to memorise ‘Some One’ I basically choreographed a small dance that she could remember and would jog her memory so that she’d remember the words of the poem.  It wasn’t exactly the most fancy choreography; in fact it was rather simple.  A real standout move involved placing a cupped hand to our ears to signify the line ‘I listened’ followed by the pretend opening of a door handle to signify ‘I opened’.  I’m a choreographic genius, I know.

 

After the homework is completed for the evening, it’s time for the dreaded shower for both children.  Inevitably, there is a small fight that breaks out between C and L over who’s showering first.  I’ve fixed this issue by alternating whom showers first each day.  A typical shower week looks like this: 

 

Monday: C, then L

Tuesday: L, then C

Wednesday: C, then L

Thursday: L, then C

Friday: C, then L

 

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “That’s unfair!  C showers first more often than L!” but I’m smarter than that!  The following week the routine switches, so L goes first on Monday and the schedule becomes fair.

 

Once both children are showered and in their pyjamas, I turn to preparing and cooking dinner for us all.  The meals I cook are really simple and usually only take a total of around 20-25 minutes to make.  This is perfect, as I’m not a chef; I’m an Au Pair.  This is starkly different to the meals my friend has to make for her family.  I can’t remember the exact dishes that she has had to make, but they sound like titles from MasterChef.  

My weekly menu usually consists of fajitas, sausage pasta, pasties with vegetables and soup.  One night I really pushed myself and made my own roux for cauliflower cheese!  That is about as creative as I get in the kitchen.  Of course, sometimes I have to make myself a slightly altered dinner because of my lactose intolerance, but it’s so easy to ‘veganify’ a meal!

 

Lionel returns from work at around 19:00 and we all sit down to eat dinner together, unless I have evening plans which isn’t usually the case when the kids are staying with their dad.  This is due to the early morning starts, which I don’t have when the kids are living with their mum!  During her week, Marie is able to take L to school before she goes to work so I get a lie in!  I told you I totally lucked out with the family that I got paired with!  Not many Au Pairs get a ride quite as easy and as laid back as mine.  The lie in means I’m able to go out with friends in the evenings and have a few (or multiple) alcoholic beverages without having the hangover from hell and having to struggle with the seven am start.  Marie also finishes work earlier than Lionel so I finish my day at around six o’clock rather than seven.  

I use my evenings sans kids to cook myself my favourite recipes, go to the cinema or meet up with friends due to the earlier finishes and lie-ins.  When the kids are staying with their dad I tend to take my leave to my room to unwind for the evening, read a book, watch some TV and get an early night.  Childcare is fun but quite exhausting!  

 

This day in the life definitely has the ability to make a lot of Au Pairs turn green with envy at the enjoyable and relaxed life I have, but I thought it would be an interesting and entertaining read for you all.  Life as an Au Pair is always fresh and exciting because every day is different.  There’s never a dull moment and work doesn’t even feel like work.  I’m absolutely loving my time here!

 

Written by Molly McKenna, 19.11.2021.