Should I be an au pair?

Ever since I discovered what being an au pair means I decided that sooner or later I would be one. I knew that when the right moment came I would pack up my things and move to another country to learn a new language while taking care of children.

I love traveling and I love children, so, the best combination of these two things is being an au pair. 

I had been thinking of being an au pair for years, I had almost left for summer long stays as an au pair, but due to different things that happened when it came to finding the best dates that would fit me, I ended up putting it off. My first intention was to work as an au pair during summers while being in college and as soon as I graduated to pack my stuff and to move for a whole year. 

But I ended up skipping the part of trying the experience on summer stays and jumped straight to starting this adventure on a year long stay. I just graduated from college and I am positive this is the right time. I am in one of those now or never times in my life, so I refused to put it off once again. 

But being an au pair is not for everybody, every thing has its pros and its cons, that is why I am going to list some of the basic requirements that in my opinion are necessary to be an au pair.

• Being passionate about children: This is, obviously, the basic requirement for being an au pair. The little ones you take care of will be the ones you will be spending most of the time with and as you will probably know, taking care of children is not an easy thing. While being an au pair you will be their mother, sister, friend and teacher all at once and this duty does not come without work. Unless you do this with all your heart you will soon give up and give an ending to the adventure. 

• To be willing to learn a new language. When you move to a country where a language other than yours is spoken you will need to learn the language in order to communicate. This can be hard and frustrating at first, but if you have your mind set on doing so and if you are willing to learn the language you will soon start to acquire it, and sooner than you expect it you will be able to understand and carry on any conversation.

• Having a bit of an adventurous soul. Being away from your loved ones, not knowing when you will see them again, starting over in a new country and having to learn a new language in order to communicate with the people around you requires of a little bit of an adventurous soul. There will be times when you will need to be strong, and sometimes you will not be able to keep it together anymore and you will cry. But for each of the hard times you will go through you will live a million great moments, and with a little bit of positivity and hope there will be nothing you won't be able to handle.

• Not being in it for the money. If what you expect is to earn a lot of money and to save up, being an au pair is not for you. If what you want is to earn and save yo money, you are better off finding a waitress job at a bar or restaurant in your hometown. There are lots of things about being an au pair, but earning lots of money is not one of them. Some families pay more than others, and you won't have to spend money in rent and food, but you will still have expenses. Going out means spending money, adapting to a new country and buying everything you will need will be expensive and traveling around will cost you great part of what you earn. So, if you are in it for the money, being an au pair is not for you.

• To be willing to live new experiences. You will go back home with thousands of stories to tell and you will live a million adventures that you were not expecting to live. You will remember this experience for years and you will go back home being a different person. And I know for a fact that people who are open to live new experiences and who face things with a positive attitude have a much better expecience.