There’s two ways: Either you blog about your new experiences (of which there are many) every day or you let the first work week pass in peace and you start telling in retrospect.
I decided for the latter. 🙂 Please do read the accumulated mass of experiences in my first work week as an au pair:
You find yourself in the situation to fill that bucket to mop the floor (fortunately there’s not much surface) on your own.
You find yourself in the situation to fight against the will of the children, to deal out disciplinary measures, to be strict.
You find yourself in the situation to embrace those kids after mentioned storms have passed and to show them your love won’t ever ‘just end’.
You find yourself in the situation to compose the day, to think ahead and to be rewarded by a smooth process.
You find yourself in the situation to take care of the laundry, to check school uniforms for spots and to be able to look behind the scenes of that ‘circle of life’.
You find yourself in the situation to blend together flour, butter, heaps of sugar and similar things and to put it all in the oven, hoping for the best.
You find yourself in the situation to see the happy faces after a meal or having discovered the rearranged cutlery drawer.
You find yourself in the situation to partake in a dance-off for a change, while doing some homework with the kids.
You find yourself in the situation to realise that hot water and some soap make all the dishes seem quite manageable.
You find yourself in the situation to notice that an early bed time not only benefits children of a young age. For adults it does hold joy as well. 🙂
You find yourself in the situation to deal with cat puke on the carpet.
You find yourself in the situation to design your life as a role model all day, to keep promises and principles up high and on top be wise and fair alike.
You find yourself in the situation to ration your time smartly, as you complete important things first and have some lazy time later. (On a clean conscience, of course. 🙂 )
You find yourself in the situation to put your own preferences and habits aside and to adapt in many departments…
My task is to help and guide the boy to his homework (more motivational work as of now) in the morning and to get some of my daily chores done, before I accompany him on his way to school. The school is close to us, so it becomes my daily walk; except for rainy days, we are made from sugar after all and would melt. 😀
One everyday chore is to keep the laundry rotation moving. That means getting the laundry from the machine online (haha) outside or inside when rainy (something about sugar, I am sure) and in the end allocate each piece to its owner. The latter is still hard, but I think the kids will do the swapping. 🙂
Next to generally maintaining order I am to deliver dinner 4 days a week. The first week was somewhat wild, as I have never ever baked a meat pie or crumbed chicken nuggets. Though it went (thanks to substantial instructions and the bits I remembered from home) well and everyone was happy…
I really enjoy having a list for all the tasks I can call my own. The family had a number of au pairs already, which provides a secure dealing with each other. You are the new one, no doubt, but the au pair itself is known element.
In the afternoon I pick up the boy from school and when the girls get home, soon there’s food and activities every day. Let it be swimming lessons, taekwondo, rugby training and so on. My job is to get the kids there and to make sure they have eaten beforehand. But with the well-tailored plan of my host-mum there’s no worries. 😉
On each of the 5 days there is a special task, like vacuum cleaning, mopping, baking something, cleaning the microwave… All in all doable with some time to spare.
Some of that time you look like the pets:
ZzzzZzzzZzzzZzzzZ
You might just as well get used to learning new stuff and doing new things everyday. But with every new activity I do for the second time you realise: Soon enough this will be normal, soon enough I will do these things blindly, won’t be needing any lists, won’t be asking basic questions. The only thing that counts then is the motivation you bring for the new day…
