Living together and settling in
How do we handle different eating habits?
Short answer
Food is a piece of home - and especially in the first few weeks, the familiar can be very comforting. Your au pair does not have to adapt to German eating habits from one day to the next. Give them time to get to know new things, while also allowing them to keep eating dishes and foods from home. This works best if you talk about it openly and take your au pair along when shopping, especially at the start.
Last updated: 13.08.2026
What lies behind it
What is completely natural to us at breakfast or dinner can be entirely unfamiliar to a young person from another culture. Bread, jam or porridge oats are not common everywhere - in other countries, breakfast might be rice or warm dishes.
So do not expect your au pair to eat exactly like your family from the first day.
Especially at the start, take your au pair along when shopping and ask directly: "What do you like to eat? What would you like for breakfast? Is there something you know from home?" If you have porridge oats for breakfast and your au pair would prefer cornflakes, the cornflakes can of course go in the trolley too.
Dishes from the home country may also continue to have their place. Your au pair might even cook for the family sometime. If this requires special or very expensive ingredients that are not part of the normal family shop, you can agree together that the au pair buys these themselves or brings certain spices from home in the first place.
Above all, it matters to ask, not to judge.