From 15th of December 2013 to 4th of March 2014, I was taking care of three children in UK. The eldest child was a boy of 8 years old, a girl of 6 years old and a disable baby girl of 16 months. I was living in Walton-On-Thames, Surrey and I travelled to London on weekends. My time there was incredible! My daily routines were from Monday to Friday waking the children up, dressing them, giving them breakfast and walking them to school. When I arrived home I used to do the laundry, ironing, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, cooking and tidy up the kitchen. About 12 p.m. when I finished my cleaning tasks I had two hours of free time. Later at 3 p.m. I picked the children up from school and walked them back home, and three times a week I took the eldest child to his extracurricular activities, then, when we arrived home I used to bath them and starting to cook supper that all the family and me used to eat together. I helped them with homework, and play with them in the park. With the girl, we used to sing and dance. With the boy, we used to talk about cars, video games, etc. I also teach them some Spanish words and sentences. After supper I had to clean the kitchen and at 6 p.m., sometimes 7p.m., I finished my schedule, so the rest of the evening was for me (except for some babysitting), as well as weekends. About the disable baby girl, I used to take care of her when my host mum had to go to supermarket or when she had some school meetings or had an appointment. She cannot eat for herself, she had a tube in her nose, so I had to learn to use the machine she was connected to feed her, changed her nappies and played with her. My host mum showed me a DVD of First Aid so I have some knowledge of it. I don't have a certificate but I am willing to do a course. My time in Walton was so great! The family was so friendly and they treated me very well. My host mum told me a lot of times that I was a hard-working girl and that she was very happy with me. It was an amazing experience! Unfortunately I had to come back to Spain for an operation.
From 12th of November 2016 to 21st of May 2017, my second time in The Uk was with the same family. The family had another child this time and we were two au pairs because one had to stay at home with the two youngest children and the other had to take the eldest children to their extracurricular activities. Some days I was the one to taking the eldest children to piano, swimming and tennis, and other days I was at home with the youngest children and preparing the supper for all the family and we all used to eat together. So, at that time the children were 10 (the eldest boy), 8 (the eldest girl), the 4 years old baby girl with physical disability and the 2 years old baby girl whom I had to take to church meetings twice a week. The daily routines were waking the children up, preparing breakfast for them, and walking them to school. Once at home cleaning up the entire house. Making errands like going to the supermarket with the family card to do the shopping for the whole week. Later we had to picking them up from school and taking them to their extracurricular activities. Again, my time there was amazing, the family is really fantastic and they treat us very well, I can say that they are my second family. But I had to come back to Spain for family things (my mum had a surgery and I had to take care of her). But this time I want to stay longer, like 2 years or even more if we are happy with each other. No more come back to Spain, only for holidays maybe.
References: I have a written reference from my last host mum.
I was aunt with 10 years old so I have a lot of experience with children since then. I have 2 sisters and one brother (11, 10 and 7 years older than me), and I have 2 nieces and 1 nephew (but they are older now, 28, 15 and 16 years old). But my nine years of experience is with one of my nieces. When she was born I was still working, but when my sister began to work after her maternity leave my niece was 4 months and my job for a year in McDonald's (2006-2007) was finished. So in that moment I wasn't working and I looked after her alone, sole charge. When my job was finished I didn’t find any because of the crisis so I helped my sister looking after of my lovely niece since she was born. I used to go to my sister’s house to help her with the baby (my niece was always crying), so she could rest. When I was studying back in high school, I went to help her everyday after finishing my classes. The tasks included making her the food, feeding her, bathing her, looking after her when she was ill, etc... I used to take care of the baby between 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sometimes my sister was with me, other times I was alone with the baby. A few years later, when I was working at my sister’s restaurant as a kitchen helper I took care of my niece in my free hours during the week, at night from 8 p.m. to 11p.m. sometimes till 00 a.m. My work was cooking supper and put her into bed.