How Do I Prepare My Home for an Au Pair?

Start with the bedroom

Your au pair needs a private bedroom — this is a program requirement, not a nicety. But think past compliance for a moment. This is their home for a year, not a guest stay, and the room is the one place that is entirely theirs in a country where nothing else is yet.

Practical things that matter more than decor: a door that closes properly, storage for a year's belongings rather than a suitcase, a working light to read by, and somewhere to put a laptop. Clear the room out before arrival rather than promising to.

Prepare your children

Explain, in advance and in words they understand, that someone new is joining the family — helping with care and sharing daily life. Children handle change far better when they are included early rather than presented with it.

• Show them where your au pair will sleep, before arrival
• Say where they are from and find it on a map together
• Be honest that it will feel a bit strange at first, for everyone
• Let older children help get the room ready

Think through your routines — then say them out loud

Every household runs on rules nobody has ever articulated. Which door you use. Whether shoes come off. What is fair game in the fridge. How loud is too loud after 9pm. When guests are fine and when they are not.

You know all of these without thinking. Your au pair cannot infer any of them. Write down the ones that would genuinely bother you if broken, and walk through them in the first days rather than waiting for one to be broken.

Practical arrangements to settle before arrival

• Wi-Fi access and a phone plan
• Whether and how they may use a car, and for what
• Where meals sit — eaten together, or self-served, or both
• Keys, alarm codes, and who to call if nobody is home

The more prepared everyone is, the stronger the relationship starts.