Interviewing To Find The Perfect Host Family
As an Au pair, finding a host family that shares your values and beliefs is important for a good experience. You will not only work for the Family but live with them and there are at first your only support when moving to the US.
What makes a “perfect Host family”?
This will look for every Au Pair very different and is based just like a Life Partner on your preferences. So you want to make sure that you share the same values and that they are nice people. It will be for every Au Pair different what a good Host family looks like, based on their beliefs. For example some Au Pairs want to feel like part of the Family and be included in Activities so they have to find a host family who has interest in that. Some Au Pairs on the other hand just want to work for the family in a nice way but doing their free time they prefer do solely their own thing. So they looks for a Family that has also no interest in a new family member and just looking for a friendly helping hand.
Neither is right or wrong and there is a lot of different experiences out there. It’s only important to find what matches best with you. You want to find good people that are genuinely interested in giving you a good experience, no matter how that looks like. So that even in not so good times or when Problems show up you can figure out a solution together and you don’t feel lost in a foreign country.
I interviewed quite a few Families to find my Host families and with that being said there is never a guarantee. Sometimes you match with a Family that seems like a perfect match but getting there and living reality it not always works out. That what Rematch is for, but this is a Topic for another day. Now we focus on a couple questions that you can ask to find out what values and beliefs the Host family has and if they are align with yours. Before asking these questions to the potential Host family you want to think already of an ideal answer/ wrong answer.
5 Questions to ask the Host parents in the interview and why
Obviously next to all the basic questions.
1. Can I talk to the previous Au Pair?
The previous Au pair has ALL the information you need! If they don’t let you talk to her 🚩
Stay open minded and read between the lines because when talking to her. She is not objective, her feelings are involved. I would ask primarily about how the relationship between the Hostparents is and to their kids. Key is to find out if they are good people!
2. How do you raise your kids?
It’s really important to know that because these are the values/ believes and principles they will ask you to handle the kids. So you have to be okey with that!
3. What are your house rules?
Most of the time the family has already some houserules written down. Sometimes they call it a guide. Ask if you can see it, so you know what to expect if you choose that family.
If they don’t have something written down just ask them certain things, about do’s and don’ts in their house and with the car. If there is a curfew, how to handle vacations and so on.
4. Can I see your house now?
Important that they show you the house right then so you can see how it actually looks like and not when they have time to prepare it.
What you wanna look out for now is not all the nice shiny thing they have you want to look of how organized and clean they are and if that matches how clean and organized you are. You will not feel comfortable in a messy house when you are organized and the other way around!
5. How does a typical day look like for you? (workday/ offday)
With this question you find out what the lifestyle of the Family looks like. How do the Host parents spend their free time and their time with the kids? Is that something you like? Find out if they are an active Family or if they rather spend their time at home. If they have already an Au Pair at this moment, see if they mention her and how she is involved in the free time.
Bonus question: (if they have a current Au Pair)
What do you like about her? / What do the kids like about her?
Here you get an idea of expectation on you, if this is something they like about her than you will know what is important to them and what they value. Pay close attention if they start talking bad about her, that’s usually a bad sign. Even if she did something badly wrong, you asked for positive things and they react negative. Something to look out for.
I hope this will help you to make a better decision about your future Host family, as you know the choice of your Host family will dominate your experience as Au Pair. It’s the most important choice. (no pressure, lol) No, but for real. Make this decision clever so you can avoid a rematch.
Love, Michelle
