Although we grew up in Barcelona, we have spent the last 19 years living and working abroad (Paris, San Francisco Bay Area, London). When our son was born 15 years ago, we decided to find a place with great quality of life and we moved to Luxembourg. We liked it so much that we decided to stay; it has many of the advantages of a small city (very convenient and safe, easy access to outdoors) and many of the perks of a cosmopolitan capital (more than 40% of the population are expats, very active cultural life, good connections with other European capitals). For southerners like us, the winters are a bit hard (similar to Paris or London, with a bit more snow) but overall it's a very nice place to live. Moreover, it's a great place to study German and French, two of the official languages - Germany is 14 miles away from where we live and France 19.
We also have two daughters: the oldest one will turn 12 shortly and will be in grade 8 next school year, and the little one is 8 years old and doing second grade. Both mom and dad work full time and we have to travel from time to time. We love to spend time with our kids but with our intense jobs, we never have enough; to maximize the quality time we spend with them, we have some great helpers around: our cleaning lady has been taking care of the heavy stuff around the house for 14 years and we have had a long-term nanny (she was with us for 4 years) and 12 au pairs, who have stayed with us for one year each. They have made the mornings less crazy and more enjoyable, allowed us to focus on the kids in the evenings and given us some breathing space for exercise and a date night in the week-ends. All the au pairs used their days to study languages and made many good friends.
As a family we like to read books and sometimes watch films or play with apps and video games (we don't have a TV set at home). Dad and the girls love to be outside while mom and son enjoy more the indoors (particularly when it's cold!). Still, all of us jump at the opportunity to hike on a nice week-end or travel around Europe (we miss this so much now!). At home, we speak in Spanish and all of us speak English; mom and dad also speak fluent French and would be happy to help the au pair with this language if required.
*** Note on Covid-19: a few things to note:
+ Luxembourg has done a very decent job at managing the pandemic and all restrictions have been lifted now. The health care system is excellent and free for residents (including foreign au pairs). The schools have been open most of the time (they only closed for 2-3 months in Spring 2020), so kids go to school “normally.”
+ As a family, we have been very careful with out health in the past two years, following the health authorities guidance, working from home, limiting our travel drastically in 2020 and 2021. All of us are fully vaccinated and boosted and we expect the new au pair to be fully vaccinated and boosted on arrival.
If you have any questions regarding how the Covid-19 situation in Luxembourg could impact you and/or how we’ve managed it, please feel free to ask. It’s an important topic and we want to be clear about it. ***

***Note: we're looking for someone to start in November or early December 2023 and stay with us for 6 to 12 months. ***
We’re looking for someone energetic, responsible and fun to help us with the kids, the house and our crazy life in general. In particular, we will need help on some of the areas listed below - note that not all of them will apply, we will decide on the specific tasks when we have clarity on next school year's schedules; in any case, the total work won't exceed 30h/week.
+ Pick up kids from school, drive them to their after-school activities and then back home
+ Prepare dinner
+ Take care of the kids one week-end evening
+ If the kids are sick and they need to stay home, take care of them
+ When mom or dad are traveling, help out getting kids to bed
+ Travel with our family during the holidays
+ During school holidays, take care of the children during the day (take them to activities, to the swimming pool, etc.)
+ Do weekly grocery shopping
+ Take care of errands (e.g. take dress to dry cleaner, pick up package from the post office, …)
+ Help to keep the house in order (light activities, the heavy stuff is taken care by our cleaning lady)
+ Help with morning logistics: prepare breakfasts and snacks, dress children, take one or two kids to school
Although the list is long, most of the activity happens in the late afternoons, which leaves a lot of time during the day to study languages and other activities.
What do we offer?
+ Contract and reasonable salary. We use the standard au pair contract in Luxembourg and we should be able to get a 1-year visa for non-EU nationals, although it's a process that may take 4 months.
+ 24 days of paid holidays a year (dates to be agreed upon)
+ Separate bedroom and bathroom (with internet access)
+ One language course throughout stay
+ Lots of fun with the little ones (and the big ones too)
+ Possibility to travel with family during holidays