We did not personally know anyone that… We did not personally know anyone that had used an au pair, so we really went into this blind. Everyone in the agency has been so amazing and helpful. You are immediately connected with three different people in the agency, at least one of which lives in the area. They have been so quick to respond and help us whenever we needed it. We just matched with an au pair and cannot wait for her to join us in a few months.

Disadvantages of being au pair Is a good opportunity to meet new places and people and get a bit of different cultures. In the other hand this program has so many things to fix, starting from the health care insurance which is not good or affordable at all, LCCs that are not enough trained to help so many people, life in the US is extremely expensive for us and even more when we have to pay taxes that takes a 10% of that small we make. Families pay yearly thousands to the agencies, but it would be fair us receiving at least a good part from that to make it part of our salary, because at the end of the day we are WORKING 45 hours per week.

the experience… the company can review the experience of the host family an how they want to be with the au pair, how is going to be relationship with her, how many things they are going to share.

Cultural Care is a game changer Cultural Care was very thorough in the application process to get signed up to be a host family. They thought of almost every aspect to help families determine what they are looking for in an au pair. During the search process, even though having only 3 connections at a time seems like a small number, it does help to narrow your focus so you don't have a wide net of connections you can't keep control over. The matching specialists were helpful with their calls each week as responsiveness to calls/texts in between the weekly calls to answer questions.

Brazilian au pairs in St Louis This has been a lifesaver for us, we moved back home to St. Louis after being gone for a long time. It was during Covid, did not realize the schools were so backed up. The shortest wait of the time we could find was 14 months, and we had no idea what to do. So we had a nanny, she was really good, but unfortunately unreliable with her schedule, and that just messed up our work schedules. So I talked to some friends and somebody suggested a au pair, it has been wonderful. If you have the space in your house for it, I don’t really think there’s any other way to go. The cost upfront feels like a lot, but when you average it out, it is much more reasonable than paying for a full-time nanny or a daycare. Plus, in our opinion, the fact that we have somebody to take our kid around to the zoo and museums and the science center, etc. as opposed to just being a daycare with a bunch of other little kids is much better for his learning overall. So I really cannot think of any downsides with the program, if you have the space in your house, and you’re OK sort of figuring out how to incorporate somebody else into your day-to-day life….This is the way to go.