Dear au pair,
We are very excited to welcome you to our family. There are four of us - Vika, Steve, Stevie and Kolya. Vika is 37 years old, and is working as a resident in diagnostic radiology at UTSW, she's fluent in Russian and English, and loves cooking, going out to try new restaurants, and working out. Vika used to be a high school foreign exchange student (from Russia to the U.S.) and attended high school, followed by college, graduate school and medical school in the U.S. and is familiar with living in a host family, feeling homesick and even having to switch host families. We think that this experience will make it easier for the au pair to transition to becoming a part of our family. Steve is 39 years old, and is working as an anesthesiologist, and loves playing video games, cooking/trying new restaurants, and enjoys a good scifi book. Stevie and Kolya are 4-year-old twins who enjoy a park, some playtime and kasha and borscht. We hope that you find time and motivation to spend some time with us - we would love to get to know you better and show you a slice of American life as we know it.

Describe the household duties related to the children your au pair will perform and how often they need to be done. Breakfast will include making kasha for the boys - our au pair usually cooks kasha every few days and makes enough kasha to last a few days. Clean-up after the breakfast will include cleaning of the table, chairs, and picking up pieces of food that the kids throw on the floor, sweeping the area around the table if the kids threw food on the floor, washing their hands and faces. Clean-up after playtime will include picking up the toys and putting them in the toy bins, organizing toys. Children's laundry will need to be done every 2-3 days. The boys have their bedroom and a playroom with toys and the au pair will be responsible for keeping the rooms tidy. The boys trash will need to be emptied every 2-3 days. The boys' bedding will need to be changed. If the boys make a mess in their rooms - breadcrumbs after eating cookies before bedtime, spill water, that will need to be mopped/cleaned up. We would expect the au pair to clean up after themselves in the living room, after their meals/food preparation - includes wiping of the kitchen counters, running and emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the sink/stovetop, mop the kitchen floor/vacuum the living room if they spilled food/drink. The au pair will be also responsible for cleaning their bedroom/bathroom, and for their laundry. The au pair is not responsible for yardwork, doing laundry for the family, or cleaning the host parents' bedroom/bathroom.
We would like the au pair to teach the kids Russian alphabet, numbers and colors, how to read and write in Russian, read books, draw and sing with them.
We would like our au pair to play with the boys, sing songs, read books, build building blocks/legos, go for walks, dance with them, bake or cook with them. No tv or screen time (phones, ipads, etc). allowed.
The au pair can bring a COVID vaccinated family member or friend to stay for a week or two. Our former au pair Gabriela's mom came to stay with us for a week and then she and Gabriela went to Mexico for a week. Overnight guests need prior approval/conversation. Ok to have visitors during off duty time, we would need to meet them if they will visit during on duty time.
If you're working the next day, curfew is midnight the night prior. The car needs to be at home at 9pm daily, if you want to hang out with friends later if you are not working the next day, you would need to use a taxi/uber. The au pair will have their own car. Limit use of the car to local driving in DFW only. Need to discuss off duty driving prior to taking the car on the weekends. Need to bring the car back on time. We will provide car insurance and all the gas needed. No out of town/weekend trips with the car. We will provide the au pair with 200$ weekly stipend, the cell phone with unlimited texts/phone calls within U.S, however international texting/phone calls should be done via Viber, Skype. We will provide the au pair with ipad. We do not have any social media apps and we do not allow any family/children photos posted on any social media.