Finding time as a couple again as parents

When did you last simply spend time together as a couple?

Not at a parents' evening. Not on the way to an appointment. Not in the evening on the sofa, while folding laundry and planning the next day at the same time.

But really together, just the two of you.

A walk. A dinner. A trip to the cinema. Or simply a conversation that isn't interrupted after three minutes by „Mum!“ or „Papa!“

Especially in families with a child with disabilities, this is often the very first thing to fall by the wayside.

When a couple becomes, above all, an organising team

Family life always involves organisation.

When a child needs more support, further appointments, applications, conversations and organisational tasks are often added on top.

Who drives where? Who looks after the siblings? What's coming up this week? What still needs to be applied for? Who takes on which appointment?

Parents function.

And somewhere among all these tasks, something that was once entirely taken for granted can slip into the background:

Time as a couple.

Not as Mum and Dad.

Not as organisers of everyday family life.

Simply as two people who chose each other.

Time as a couple is not a luxury

Of course, the children's needs often come first in everyday family life.

But a family does not consist only of parents and children. It also consists of the relationship between the adults.

Spending time together, having conversations and sharing something enjoyable is therefore not an unnecessary luxury.

And it doesn't take a child-free weekend or a trip away together to achieve.

Sometimes far less is enough.

Small moments of freedom can change an incredible amount

An hour's walk.

A coffee in peace.

Eating out together, without cutting up food, getting up, or watching the clock.

A trip to the cinema.

A quiet Sunday morning.

Or simply closing the door behind you and knowing:

We now have a little time just for us.

It is exactly these small windows of time that tend to disappear first in everyday family life.

An au pair can help make them possible again.

Because a familiar person is already there

What is special about an au pair is that parents don't need to organise unfamiliar childcare every time they want to do something together.

The au pair lives with the family.

They know the children and their routines. And the children know the au pair.

Trust develops through the time spent together.

Especially with a child with disabilities, this can be a great advantage. Not every child can easily be looked after by a constantly changing carer.

But when the au pair has long since become part of daily life, a shared evening out for the parents can become much easier to arrange.

Don't wait until, one day, there's time left over

„Once things calm down a bit, we'll spend more time together again.“

Many parents will probably recognise this thought.

But things rarely calm down by themselves.

After one appointment comes the next. After one application, the next letter. And ordinary everyday family life doesn't wait either.

Couple time therefore rarely arises because time suddenly becomes available.

It arises when someone else can take something over for a moment.

And this is exactly where an au pair's support can make a difference.

One evening can already be enough

Perhaps the au pair spends time with the children and takes over the usual evening routine while you go out for dinner together.

Perhaps you go for an hour's walk on Sunday.

Perhaps you finally manage to get to the cinema again.

Or you simply sit somewhere over a coffee and have a conversation from start to finish.

It isn't about constantly going out.

It's about having the possibility to do so again.

What an au pair from Besondere Sterne can change

Our au pairs are not meant to support families only where the calendar is especially full.

They can create relief exactly where families actually feel it in everyday life.

An au pair lives with you, gets to know your children, and over the months becomes a familiar person in everyday family life.

This creates moments of freedom.

For the child with disabilities. For siblings. For each parent individually.

And, indeed, for you as a couple too.

Because sometimes a relationship doesn't need a big holiday or a free weekend.

Sometimes it just needs two hours in which no one wants anything from you.

Two hours for a meal.

For a walk.

For a conversation.

For a little of what gets lost so quickly in everyday life:

Time for us.