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Au Pairs have to take care of certain duties and responsibilities. All of these should be made clear in the contract between you and the host family.

Your main task will be to take care of your host family's children and some other duties related to childcare. You might also need to help with minor household duties; however, make sure that will not be your main job if you are working as an au pair.

You responsibilities should always be related to the children, like doing their laundry, preparing lunch/dinner for them, emptying the dishwasher or cleaning up the kid's rooms.

Following, you can find a list of your duties as an Au Pair and as well as a list of the work which isn't your responsibility.

Au Pair's Duties

Your main task is to look after your host children, which means that you should:

  • play with your host children, do crafts with them, read a book to them, go to the park with them etc.
  • take your host children to school/pick them up from school
  • help with the kids' homework
  • arrange and take your host children to play dates with other children or take them to other appointments and activities
  • depending on your host family's needs and your working hours, you might need to dress your host children in the morning (/help them to get dressed) or help them to get ready for bed in the evening
  • you might also need to bath your host children

Au Pair should help out with minor household duties, which include:

  • cleaning the children's room(s)
  • doing the children's laundry
  • preparing meals for the kids (lunch/dinner)
  • emptying the dishwasher
  • keeping their own room clean
  • if the au pair has an own bathroom, s/he is also responsible for keeping it clean

What Au Pairs should NOT do

  • They should not be responsible for cleaning private areas of the house, such as the host parents' bedroom
  • No washing and ironing clothes of the entire family
  • No cooking for the entire host family (it should never be a duty, of course you can prepare a meal for them, to introduce them to your culture)
  • No cleaning the toilet
  • The au pair should only take care of his/her host children and is not responsible for looking after children of friends, neighbors etc. If your host kid has a play date with a friend, make sure that the friend's parents are okay with you looking after their children instead of your host children's parents.

This post is also available in: German