| Dear Au Pair,
We need a good 'au pair plus' to join our family when Emel from Turkey leaves us in Aug/Sept 2010.
We are a friendly, flexible family, hoping to find a friendly, efficient, flexible aupair/housekeeper aged 21-30ish to come and be part of our busy family.
We have had 13 au pairs over the past 8 years: 1 Czech, 1 Hungarian, 1 NZ, 3 Slovak, 2 Turkish, 2 German, 1 Canadian, 1 US and 1 Dutch. Our au pairs have mostly become friends, and are still in touch - 4 of them now live permanently in the UK. You will be welcome to contact some previous au pairs for information about us and about the job.
We enjoy having someone living with us from a different country and culture. Our au pairs have been quite varied, and have shared diverse interests with us. It is important to us that everyone is happy together. Our au pairs live fully as part of the family, welcome to come along to family occasions, and on holiday etc. There is always someone to watch a film with, go for a walk or bike ride with, or just have a chat or share music with, and there's usually someone going into town at the weekend for shopping or socially - just ask our previous au pairs!
Tim is a lawyer and I'm a maths/psychology teacher, both full time. I am studying for a masters degree, too. We tend to seem serious, if only from sheer tiredness.
Our children are friendly and fun - Owen is 17 and Bethan 14. They do a lot of music - different styles including classical, pop, opera, rock and jazz. Owen plays piano and guitar, Bethan plays piano, and there's a lot of singing. Bethan is interested in jazzdance, ballet, drama, singing and art, and has no definite career plans yet. Owen is studying maths and science, and plans to study Physics at university, enjoying music and mountain-biking in his spare time. Megan, our oldest daughter, is a trainee accountant and lives nearby with her boyfriend.
We hope you are friendly, calm and sociable, and willing to become part of our family. We hope you will make friends of your own and have a social life while you are here, too, but we trust that you are not promiscuous or a heavy drinker or too often a 'night owl' (forgive the mention of negatives, but we did once have a difficult experience).
Hopefully you like pets because we have 2 cats, 2 rabbits, 2 guinea-pigs and lots of fish. Don't worry - we mostly look after them ourselves, and only the cats and 1 goldfish live in the house!
This is a pretty village, and we live in a nice old rambling village house with a big romantic garden, good for sitting out in summer. There is a bus service to the nearby town, and we give lots of lifts. We help as much as we can with English if needed, too.
You will be expected to keep the house clean and looking nice, the laundry up-to-date and put away, a simple weekday meal prepared, and to be a friendly face for us all to come home to. It's a big house (6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a shower-room, 2 sitting-rooms, dining room and library/music-room) so there's plenty to do, and YOU DO NEED TO BE EXPERIENCED IN HOUSEWORK AND IRONING - PLEASE DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS. Usually the work fits easily into 5-6 hours per day with spare time, but it isn't a time-clock situation. We need someone who'll see what's needed and do it - our lives are fairly busy and stressful. In return, you'll have our eternal gratitude! We'll also be flexible around your college night, drive you about when we can, and do our best to make your stay a happy and satisfying time.
Please check that you are eligible to come, perhaps as an EC citizen, or under one of the following visa programmes: UK au pair visa, BUNAC scheme (US), Youth Mobility Scheme (Can, NZ, Aus, Japan).
We aren't paid members at the moment, but do hotlist us if you are interested - we'll get in touch when we re-join in spring 2010. If you are a paid member yourself you can contact us directly.
We have completed GreatAuPair's Online Interview - do click on the link to the left of this profile to read it. (It isn't quite up-to-date, so we'll amend it when we re-join fully, But don't worry - it isn't far wrong.)
We look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards, Sara
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