I have received three au pair offers I'm considering pretty seriously. I know which is the most practical job to take and I know which one I most want to take (they are not the same). There are a lot of factors to consider so this is going to be a long post.
Family 1: Parents, 14 year old girl, two boys who are 10/11/12 or somewhere around there, 3 year old girl, 1 year old boy. They live in a fairly residential but central area of Paris, easily accessible by Metro. Duties would consist mostly of getting the youngest ready in the mornings, taking him to daycare, bringing him home at lunchtime, feeding him, getting one of the kids from school and dropping them at an extracurricular activity. Occasional babysitting and tutoring the older kids in English/piano/helping them learn to cook (I would get paid extra for those last things and feeding the baby). They're giving me a small apartment about 4 stops away via Metro, maybe a 20 minute commute door to door, and I would eat dinner with them maybe twice a week or so. No cleaning/housework duties; unsure if they'd be paying for my Metro pass. It pays about 30 euro a week, plus some pocket money and an extra 500 if I feed the baby lunch. And of course Paris gives a lot of opportunities for me to do part time tutoring on the side to make some extra money.
I met them today and as you'd expect it's sort of chaotic with them all around, but most of the time I'm with them I'd be dealing with at most two at once. The little girl was a kind of a monster but her mother said she's not usually like that. That could very well be a lie I suppose but she is three so it's somewhat to be expected. The baby was basically the best baby ever - he was very sweet and compliant and has already taken a great liking to me (the mother was astonished as apparently he's usually very shy and clingy). The older ones seem like good kids - the girl is very friendly and one of the boys is very smart, he goes to an exclusive private school. I would speak English with the kids to help them improve, and French with the mother, to help me improve.
Family 2: Parents, 13 year old and 12 year old (don't know if boys/girls) and 7 year old boy. They live near Dax, which is a very small city in the south of France, in the Basque region - it's very historic and interesting and I really loved the Basque last time I went. It's within easy distance of Bayonne, Biarritz, Pau, St Jean de Luz, and the Spanish Pyrenees. I would have a similar schedule of taking the youngest to school in the morning, picking him up and hanging around until about 7:30pm. This one requires some more housework type things, like doing the children's laundry, tidying their rooms, and making dinner for them. They seem to be into sports, going to the beach, and things like that. They didn't specify if they want me to speak English to them. I would be required to drive pretty much every day and since cars here are mostly manual I imagine I'd have to learn that, which is sort of scary. I assume they'd pay for gas and let me use a car of theirs but it hasn't been explicit. I would have a room with a bathroom in their house, which was described as a "maison landais" I would get 90 euro a week.
A "maison landais"
A Google image search from the town, St Paul les Dax, doesn't give anything salient.
Family 3: Parents, elderly grandma, little girl (age not specified, I would guess between 5 and 8). They live in the Haute-Savoie, a very rural and mountain-y area that is right on the Swiss border - it's right next to a lake and across the lake is Switzerland. The closes major city is Geneva (about 15 miles), but it's easy driving distance of Turino, Grenoble, and Lyon as well. The big thing: the parents run a farm with a million cows and some horses. This is truly rural and not at all something I have experience with, but very interesting to me. The mother speaks English very well but didn't specify whether they wanted me to help the girl with English/speak it to her. Again the schedule would mostly be getting the girl ready for school, taking her to the bus, and getting her after school. The ad lists a need for "light" housework (probably similar, the child's laundry and tidying her room) and help cooking for her (in this case it seems more like preparing breakfast and maybe something right after school). I would have a private room and bathroom in their large house. The weekly pay isn't specified.
Thonon les Bains: (they don't live in the town but are close to it)
Okay.
Perhaps you can see the rub: the Paris situation is definitely the most practical - I know the city, no driving involved, my own apartment, more opportunities to make money on the side, closer to my friends in France - but I would really like to do the one in Haute-Savoie. It's a part of France I've never visited and a lifestyle that's entirely new to me - if I'm going to be doing something like this I think it would be awesome to do something completely new. Also the little girl seems super sweet. At the same time, it seems likely I'd go nuts in a very rural area for a year and it's not accessible by train. Also I don't ski, which seems to be the primary amusement. But then there are other factors: 5 kids and a hectic life in Paris vs one kid and a more leisurely life in Haute-Savoie. Then consider the Dax position, which is somewhat between the two, 3 kids and some activities in a small town, in a region I know I would find interesting.
Then...
There's always the option to wait to hear back from teaching/office jobs.
HELP ME.
3 comments:
I think you should stay in Paris - driving around would be totally scary I think haha. But there's not really a big rush to find a job right? I would wait to see if you have more offers since that family seems a little..high energy haha. I'm sure you could find another family in Paris, I'm sure demand for au pairs is high. The office job might be nice, and pay more, but you wouldn't have as much time to yourself to explore!
some thoughts:
If you stay in Paris and are an au pair there, you can use the next year for networking - use your free time to investigate leads to use your education. Maybe volunteer at some historical sites, or museum, get to know people who might give you a "real job" at the end of the year.
If you go live on that farm, you can use free days to go traveling and do some "city stuff", so you don't miss city life too much. The duties are light, so you'd have time to do fun things. And Geneva is only 15 miles away? Plus it should be great for your stress level!
If you go to the Basque area, you get more money than the Paris family offers; after a year, it is a nicer total,(if you save!)tho can't compare it to the farm family, who have not defined the salary.
There seem to be some unknowns you should find answers to before you accept one or another of the offers: salary, language, driving, stick shift lessons?, how old is the little girl, etc.
You could wait for an office job, and these families will find someone else. But if you don't have a office job by the end of school, what options will that leave with?
If you plan to continue with a phD program, does the job matter that much, whether you are an au pair, experiencing new things and with a flexible schedule, or an office worker, and more traditional resume?
And there is always the added challenge of learning to drive a stick shift. (and maybe Trevor's car? No, no, Trevor! Just kidding!)
Those are just thoughts, they don't add up to anything, just random thoughts about the different options. It is up to you what you want to do, and it sounds like no matter what, you will have something interesting. And the added bonus that your French will get better.
On the PhD point...since my work is focusing on the provinces during the Revolution I had a thought that I could probably find some interesting things in the regional archives if I took the job in Haute-Savoie, because Thonon-les-Bains is the capital of the region. It seems harder to access the Paris archives but at the same time it would keep me more centrally located to do a wider range of research if I stayed here.
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