by Albina
Sun May 20, 2012 7:45 am
Hi there
So, thank you for emailing us. We're a family of five with kids aged 2, 11 and 13, and we need a hand helping to balance the lives of the older two children with that of our toddler and so letting my wife manage the home a little more easily. The eldest two are keen swimmers, and also play various sports ranging from fencing, netball, hockey and athletics, as well as playing two instruments (flute and piano) that my wife also teaches as a hobby at weekends, the rest of the time she is a housewife. I am the Chief Finance Officer for an investment bank in the City of London and commute up and down from London every day.
We live in a six bedroom house (there is a picture of it in winter on the website) on the edge of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England, which is about three quarters of an hour from London and a similar time to the beach to the south. There are a lot of things to do around us and public transport is excellent, so we are always out and about doing things when we can. We also have a great college near us where our au pairs tend to go to study English (we like them to do that) as well as learning through lots of practice at home speaking with us. Our au pairs have their own room to stay in, and we try to keep close with them to make sure their time with us is enjoyable. Our current au pair will be leaving in August to go back home to go to University, hence looking for someone at the end of August / early September to spend we hope a year or more with us, would that work for you?
As regards a "timetable", our au pairs live a very flexible life at home with us. We ask them to go to college to learn English through a structured course and fortunately live near one of the best colleges in the south east of England for that, and so that takes up two mornings a week. We also ask them to help out my wife looking after the children and the house, which involves watching our youngest (John) to keep him safe whilst other things are going on, and two or three times a month baby-sitting to cover the gaps between me getting home and Viv having to take the older two (Tony and Anna) out to their swimming in the evenings. There is also a bit of light housework (washing, ironing etc) but we have a cleaner who comes in once a week who does all the heavy housework (hoovering, washing floors, cleaning the bathroom etc). So our au pairs probably only have to do about twenty hours a week with us. We're very flexible about life and hope you will be the same, so there are times when nothing happens and other times when it's all a bit frantic!
So it would be good to hear more about you, your family, your home and your life. Maybe you can send us some more pictures of your home, and tell me some more of what you do and what it is like in the area that you live? Do you swim at all? It's a big part of the kids lives albeit we have only just started taking the young one to the pool too.
Look forward to hearing from you soon
So, thank you for emailing us. We're a family of five with kids aged 2, 11 and 13, and we need a hand helping to balance the lives of the older two children with that of our toddler and so letting my wife manage the home a little more easily. The eldest two are keen swimmers, and also play various sports ranging from fencing, netball, hockey and athletics, as well as playing two instruments (flute and piano) that my wife also teaches as a hobby at weekends, the rest of the time she is a housewife. I am the Chief Finance Officer for an investment bank in the City of London and commute up and down from London every day.
We live in a six bedroom house (there is a picture of it in winter on the website) on the edge of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England, which is about three quarters of an hour from London and a similar time to the beach to the south. There are a lot of things to do around us and public transport is excellent, so we are always out and about doing things when we can. We also have a great college near us where our au pairs tend to go to study English (we like them to do that) as well as learning through lots of practice at home speaking with us. Our au pairs have their own room to stay in, and we try to keep close with them to make sure their time with us is enjoyable. Our current au pair will be leaving in August to go back home to go to University, hence looking for someone at the end of August / early September to spend we hope a year or more with us, would that work for you?
As regards a "timetable", our au pairs live a very flexible life at home with us. We ask them to go to college to learn English through a structured course and fortunately live near one of the best colleges in the south east of England for that, and so that takes up two mornings a week. We also ask them to help out my wife looking after the children and the house, which involves watching our youngest (John) to keep him safe whilst other things are going on, and two or three times a month baby-sitting to cover the gaps between me getting home and Viv having to take the older two (Tony and Anna) out to their swimming in the evenings. There is also a bit of light housework (washing, ironing etc) but we have a cleaner who comes in once a week who does all the heavy housework (hoovering, washing floors, cleaning the bathroom etc). So our au pairs probably only have to do about twenty hours a week with us. We're very flexible about life and hope you will be the same, so there are times when nothing happens and other times when it's all a bit frantic!
So it would be good to hear more about you, your family, your home and your life. Maybe you can send us some more pictures of your home, and tell me some more of what you do and what it is like in the area that you live? Do you swim at all? It's a big part of the kids lives albeit we have only just started taking the young one to the pool too.
Look forward to hearing from you soon
