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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was au-pair in Germany and had a fantastic time with a wonderful family. The experience was so great that I decided to do another year in France and started looking. I had been emailing with a mother who seemed nice and easy-going and we were almost going to set up a phone interview when she sent me a list of the chores she'd like me to do. Now, [b]au-pair rules in Germany and France are much more along the lines of cultural exchange and not slavery as they are in America[/b], so an au-pair is supposed to work 20 hours a week, no heavy cleaning or cooking for the whole family, allowing time for language classes, at least one full weekend day free and a small stipend. This mother sent me a list of chores that was literally two Word pages long, including cleaning their pool, brushing several of their dogs, cooking dinners for the whole family, spring cleaning, keeping the garage tidy and a myriad other ridiculous things that had nothing to do with childcare. She kindly said she would do a schedule for me so that I could accomplish these tasks throughout the week in the mornings while the kids were in daycare and this way they wouldn't seem daunting. Considering I was to have the kids each day for 5 hours after daycare, I'm not sure it wouldn't worked out to 20 hours a week. She also said her current au-pair was feeling homesick and wanted to go home early... I'm guessing her current au-pair realised she wasn't going to learn any French and was spending the entire time polishing silver.

My then hostmother effectively forbade me going to that family (not that I was going to go myself) and then sent that French mother an email saying how she's not respecting the principles of au-pairing and giving the program a bad name and all that, and I have rarely loved my hostmother more - and I love her lots.[/quote]

You're right. Working 30 hrs/wk for $300/month, and having to pay for my own French language courses + airfare + insurance, and have one day off a week to explore is a lot less like slave labor than working 45 hrs/wk for $195.75/week with 1.5 day off each week, plus having my airfare, insurance, and courses paid for, as well as having cultural outings included in my first week here, and then monthly for the remainder of the year. [/quote]

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