Finnish Au Pairs

[Anonymous]

Hey, our au pair from Finland arrived and we want to support her in connecting to other au pairs. I know that most au pairs run in pacts of their country, and Finland is not a common country for au pairs.

Has anyone else had an au pair from Finland? Thoughts on helping them build a network? Any Finnish au pair Facebook groups? We live in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

We knew a finish au pair, who was our German au pair’s best friend. I never heard her mention any other finish fiends. She just hung out with other au pairs from our cluster. Maybe you could reach out to your LCC and ask for help, both in terms of connecting her with other finish au pairs, but also about getting her in touch with au pairs, who could be friend material, even if they come from a different country.

[Anonymous]

^^ all finish should be Finnish. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had two. One found another local Finnish girl from another agency and they were BFFs throughout their time here.

My other one made friends with other APs from other nationalities but she also was a bit of a homebody.

Give her time and encourage her to make friends from other nationalities to improve her English and just get out more...

[Anonymous]

While it's nice to have friends from your home country, proximity to your home makes for lots of opportunities to get together for a quick coffee, car pool to classes, children's play dates, etc. Some of our APs have enjoyed this even more than country compatriots because of all the time they were able to spend together during their AP year. I encouraged this by making sure she knew where the closest APs in our cluster lived. It made for good driving practice during the first week. You don't necessarily want to encourage your AP who lives in VA to socialize only with an AP friend who lives in DC or MD.

[Anonymous]

Never had a Finnish AP, but our first was Swedish. Now I know there are more Swedish APs out there, but we didn't have any in our cluster, so our Swedish AP didn't have other Swedish AP friends. She ended up buddying up with German girls. That worked out great, IMO, because she was speaking English in these situations, and the friends were pretty nearby home. I wish our current AP (Italian) would make friends in the neighborhood or cluster. Instead, Italian AP looks for Italians across the DC metro area and has to travel far to be with them. And misses the opportunity to speak English (which is needed in this case).

Facebook or other social media usually allows APs to connect with fellow countrymen (and women).

[Anonymous]

We had three Finns in our city (not DC) who did meet up every once in a while but not on a daily basis, due to different schedules and being in different suburbs (also partly because they were just very different personality wise). All three from different agencies but they did find each other (they always do). All made friends with APs who lived closer to them and worked more similar schedules. As PP said, great because it made them all speak English more.

We also had a few Koreans. Again, different schedules, different suburbs... who did spend time together (sometimes just being with somebody whom you share a culture and native language with is enough to bond) but also met up with friends who were APs in a different city and state (4 hrs drive) on the weekends.

OP, your AP will find somebody she connects with. No matter her nationality.

[Anonymous]

OP here, hoping she's find someone to connect with. She's sweet and super outgoing, but still hasn't found anyone despite all of the au pairs around us. It seems girls she met during the orientation from Germany have found other Germans to spend their time together.

She's really doing well as an au pair, and would hate not being able to find friends be the reason she leaves. Have already tried directing her to FB groups and meet ups. She's been here for 2 1/2 weeks, so not long. But I see her trying to make plans and connect with au pairs in the cluster, and nothing is happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, hoping she's find someone to connect with. She's sweet and super outgoing, but still hasn't found anyone despite all of the au pairs around us. It seems girls she met during the orientation from Germany have found other Germans to spend their time together.

She's really doing well as an au pair, and would hate not being able to find friends be the reason she leaves. Have already tried directing her to FB groups and meet ups. She's been here for 2 1/2 weeks, so not long. But I see her trying to make plans and connect with au pairs in the cluster, and nothing is happening.

LCCs should also ask seasoned APs to help get new ones out.