Daniela has been in Florida for almost two years and Maite has been in Washington for a year and nine months as an au pair: a childcare program in exchange for accommodation and a weekly payment, something like a home babysitter.
the routine of Daniela Escalante (26) in Tampa, Florida, he leaves at 8 a.m. to pick up the two-year-old boy he is caring for as au pair in the USA. At 8.30 a.m. they are swimming. They come home for breakfast, play for a while, then go out to the park and around noon come back for lunch. “I’ve always loved children,” says Daniela, who is about to complete two years in the au pair program.
The term au pair comes from French and is known around the world as a child care program in exchange for accommodation and a weekly payment, something like a babysitter at home. This modality allows young women, generally between the ages of 18 and 26, to travel to a country where a language other than their mother tongue is spoken and to work taking care of children, always with defined hours. The duration of the program in the United States is one year, but it can be extended up to two and provides 11 days of annual vacation.
In Chile, different agencies provide intermediary services to facilitate visa procedures and to be representatives of organizations of au pair from other countries. “According to the State Department’s description of UNITED STATES This is a cultural exchange option that has a work component, i.e. caring for children, but also has a study component, as the program requires a number of credits from a course taken at a study centre. The correct word is not ‘salary’, but a weekly payment to help meet minor expenses,” he explains. Claudio LeRoy director and founder of Kimunche one of the Chilean agencies that represents Au Pair in America one of the most recognized organizations of its kind in the United States.
According to Claudio, in addition to having a good level of English and having a high school diploma, the requirements to apply are “to have a driver’s license and verifiable driving experience, because in the United States United, public transport is bad except in some cities, and it is essential that applicants know how to drive because families will give them a car to take the children to their activities or they will share the family car.It is also mandatory to have at least 200 hours of experience in childcare or other activities with children in the last three years.
I have been very lucky. They welcomed me as part of the family, for them I am one more girl. They taught me a lot of things and support me every moment. Here they always joke that they would like to have another child, but they already have me.
Daniela Originally from Los Andes, she studied hotel management and was also certified to be a cabin crew member. When the pandemic started, he lost his job in a casino and at that time there were not many other job opportunities in his field, so he looked for an alternative plan. “My sister-in-law is from Costa Rica and she was an au pair in the United States. I started researching the subject and really liked it. I always wanted to be in the United States,” recalls Daniela, who started her program in Washington, but due to communication issues with her first host family, she decided to move to Tampa.
“I was very lucky. They welcomed me as part of the family, for them I am one more girl. They taught me a lot of things and support me at all times. Here they always joke saying they would like to have another child, but they already have me,” she said.
The process of accompaniment by the agencies is from the moment they apply, they match a family through the designated platform until they return to Chile. They have regional advisors provided by the Au Pair in America program, as well as direct communication. “We have WhatsApp groups where we are in constant communication with them and attentive to their needs. All of us who work at the agency have had some sort of experience of cultural exchange outside the country, so we understand them perfectly,” Claudio points out.
Daniela has traveled to Hawaii, Georgia and Virginia, among other places, on vacation with her foster family, she still looks after the child at agreed times, but due to the good relationship she has forged with them, she makes sure that she does not feel like she is working: “We also share the same social circle. His friends have become my friends because we have a very close relationship. Of course, I also made friends with the other au pairs”.
Para ella, el aprendizaje más valioso que le ha dejado esta experiencia es el personal crecimiento: myself. We grow a lot. For me, who arrived at 24, it was like that, and for the girls who arrive younger, at 18, their life changes because they arrive as children and come back as adults.
“It gives you a lot of stability”
Currently the price of this program in Kimunche is 975 dollars , which includes round-trip airfare, a three-day all-expense orientation in New York City, and airfare to your destination family, plus coverage for up to $500 for one course au pair of choice, to meet the study requirements of the program. The weekly payment participants receive from family is $195.95.
Maite Zuniga She has been living in a suburb near Washington DC for one year and nine months as an au pair with two boys aged 7 and 8. She studied multilingual hotel management, but due to the pandemic she could not find a job, so she opted for this program. He assures that he did not consider other options such as a Working Holiday Visa because this way of leaving the country seemed more practical to him: “It is much cheaper and it gives you much more stability, because you arrive in a house and you don’t have to worry about renting or finding a job, but you arrive with everything ready I decided that in a week and in three or four months I was already in the States -United “, Maite account.
She was active for a week on the agency’s portal to find a host family and interviewed four families. This was decided, among other things, because his current family lives in a small town, but at the same time close to Washington, where he usually walks to visit museums that are free all year round.
Maite’s schedule is from 3pm to 9pm and she starts when the children arrive from school: “The idea is to take care of them and entertain them until they go to sleep. They don’t have extracurricular activities, so everyday I don’t have to drive, but we go to the parks or play in the garden, which is very big. The work has been quite relaxed, the parents are not very demanding in telling me what to do and what not to do, because I am clear about my duties”.
Most of her friends have different schedules from hers, but she tries to integrate them to get together from time to time for a coffee or a friend, as is the case with one of her Argentinian friends. One of the positive experiences that Maite highlights is precisely the bond that is created with other au pairs. “We are a large group that is in the same area and monthly meetings are organized by the advisers and in these cases we make friends. The truth is that with my friends we have become more than friends, almost a family, because we live in the same situations; suddenly we complain about the same things and also rejoice over similar things. We understand each other very well, I think a much stronger bond is generated than a friendship,” says Maite.
Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
