After the au pair year: finding a new au pair in good time

The first au pair year is drawing to a close – and for many families, one thing is already clear: we want to carry on living with an au pair.

In that case, it's worth not waiting until the final few weeks. If you want to move on as seamlessly as possible to a new au pair, it's worth thinking about the next placement early on.

At Besondere Sterne, we recommend that our host families start the new search around three months before their desired start date.

After nine months, we remind our host families

Families who have already been placed through Besondere Sterne don't have to keep track of this timing on their own.

After around nine months of the au pair's stay, our registered host families receive a message from us reminding them that, if they wish, we can begin the search for the next au pair.

This leaves enough time for selecting a match, getting to know one another, and the further steps needed before arrival.

With a second au pair, you already know so much more

Searching for a second au pair feels quite different for many families than it did the first time round.

By now, you know what it actually means to live together with an au pair. You have gathered experience and can judge much more concretely what suits your family.

Make use of this knowledge and think it through together:

• What worked particularly well with our previous au pair?
• Which qualities turned out to matter more in everyday life than we initially thought?
• Where did difficulties arise?
• What would we do differently next time?
• Which tasks or situations are especially important in our family's everyday life?
• What personal qualities do we want in our next au pair?

You may even find that criteria which seemed especially important during your first search barely mattered in real everyday life – while quite different things turned out to be decisive.

Reviewing your own host family profile once more

Before a new placement, it's therefore a good moment to take another look at your own family profile.

Has your everyday life changed? Have the children become more independent in the meantime? Are there new hobbies, school hours or appointments? Have the tasks changed?

And above all: what do you want from an au pair today?

The more precisely you can assess this now, the more specifically we can search for a young person who fits your current family life.

Preparing the children for the new au pair, too

For children, an au pair changeover also means a change.

On the one hand, they have to say goodbye to someone who may have been part of their everyday life for a whole year. At the same time, someone new is soon going to become part of the family.

So talk to your children about this early on. They're allowed to be sad that the current au pair is leaving – and curious at the same time about who is coming next.

Both feelings are allowed to exist side by side.

The new au pair is not a replacement for the old one

Especially when the first au pair fitted wonderfully with the family, a particular challenge quickly arises: you start comparing.

"But our last au pair always did it this way." (Translated)

"She was much quicker in the mornings." (Translated)

"He played with the children differently." (Translated)

Such comparisons are only human – but they rarely help with a fresh start.

The new au pair is a different personality. They bring different experiences, different habits, different strengths, and perhaps also different uncertainties.

Perhaps they can't do some things as well as the previous au pair. In return, they may bring abilities you never knew about or expected before.

So give your second au pair the chance to find their own place in your family, too.

A new au pair means a fresh start

By the second time round, the family already knows what au pair life is like. For the new au pair, however, everything is still new: the home, the children, the rules, the language and the family's daily routine.

Even if, after twelve months, much had become second nature with the previous au pair, a new phase of getting to know one another and settling in begins again with the next young person.

If you consciously prepare for this and don't expect everything to work exactly as before from day one, you create a good foundation for the next shared au pair year.

Start the new au pair search in good time

If you already know that you'd like to welcome another au pair after your current one, it's best to get in touch with us early.

As an existing host family with Besondere Sterne, we remind you after around nine months that the next search can begin.

Because after your first au pair year, you're not starting from scratch again. You're starting with something rather valuable: a year of experience and a much clearer picture of the kind of person who truly fits your family.