The child home care includes nanny care and care by other specialists such as baby sitters, au pairs, nursery nurses, parents’ helpers and so on. Let us know something about au pairs. A foreign national, who is between the ages of 18-26, and comes to the United States through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Current Affairs Au Pair Exchange Program, is called an au pair.
The work of au pairs include providing child care services. They work in exchange for a salary, room and board. They compensation for an au pair is decided as per the Fair Labor Standards Act. When there are infants of three months of age or younger, an au pair may not be placed in homes unless there is a parent in the home supervising the au pair. They can be placed in home with a child of two years of age or younger only when they have a documented child care experience for 200 or more hours.
An au pair should be treated as one among the house but not as a slave or a stranger. Au pairs work for about 45 hours per week. They provide live-in child care by staying at the child’s home. So they offer their services with more flexibility and takes care of the child at times that accommodate the family’s schedule.
Here are some responsibilities of an au pair.
- Light housekeeping that includes children’s laundry and keeping their room tidy
- Preparing children’s meal
- Bathing and dressing the children
- Playing with the children
- Teaching them about a new culture
- Taking them out to parks, and other places
- Taking them to school and helping them in homework