Au Pair Story: Stockholm, Sweden

Supattra Thong-om

Nationality: Thai
Age: 25 years old
Country: Sweden
City: Stockholm
Children: 1 girl

How did you become an Au pair?

I would say it’s all about luck because my cousin who was an Au pair in Sweden was about to finish her exchange year and her host family by that time was in need of an Au Pair replacement for the upcoming year. She offered me an opportunity to contact the family and prepared me for the interview and after that I got selected as the next Au Pair.

How did you prepare yourself?

First of all, I practiced English every day from work, movies, songs, news, etc. and also studying basic Swedish myself in order to prepare my language skills that required and important for this job. After that, I went to childcare training at Kid’s home for a month to obtain more childcare experience at the same time improving my cooking skill.

Why did you want to be an Au pair in Sweden?

I would like to say thank my cousin to give a great great opportunity to me. Basically, I don’t have specific preference for a host country as I am very open-minded to new things and experiences. I am happy with any country in Europe because I have fascination for this continent and want to take a year off to explore this big wide world in order to learn and grow.

In my opinion, Sweden is a peaceful and beautiful country where is high technology and close to the nature where is green everywhere in summer. People are so nice and helpful but it’s pretty hard to make friend with Swedes. I would say a year is not enough for them to be friend with people from other countries. However, travelling in Sweden, it’s easy to catch up transportations in Sweden but be careful because they use Pass Card and hardly use cash for travelling so be prepared.

Tell us a bit about your host family in Sweden

There are host mom, host dad and a little daughter. They live in Södermalm, Stockholm.  My host dad is a lawyer and host mom works in Institution of Finance in Stockholm.  My host family is extremely into sports because they go running and jogging every day. A part from that, their daughter is so adorable and energetic kid because she loves playing outside, meeting new people, painting, and etc. Sometimes, they play piano or other music instruments for their daughter. What a cozy and lovely family!

 How was your relationship with your host family?

They were so kind and nice who treated me as their own family. When I arrived in Stockholm, my host dad picked me up at the airport and then host mom and host dad showed me around Stockholm. They invited me at their party and let me to be a part of their family. First time of working with their daughter who didn’t speak English at all was very difficult to communicate with but host family always helped me out as interpreter between their daughter and me. And on their vacation, they took me to their summerhouse in Spain and Ski resort on Christmas. I got a chance to travel in Spain and learn how to ski. I totally fell in love with winter sports. It was such an honor and so grateful to work with them. I love my host family!

What did your host family help you to become an Au Pair?

My host family helped me almost everything to get me into Sweden and provided comfort for me during my stay in Sweden such as flight tickets, visa cost and language course. Moreover, I got a chance to travel in Spain and stay at their summerhouse on my own vacation. They also took out a skiing course for me to learn how to ski which was truly amazing to ski the first time.

What tasks and duties did you do during the exchange year?

My main duties were to look after their daughter. For example, dropped her off and picked her up at kindergarten. After kindergarten or on weekend, I took her to the playground and played with her. Besides, prepared breakfast, lunch, dinner for her and then I did light housework. Such as, do laundry and clean the house (once in a week) and last one was to prepare dinner for the whole family and to do extra work as they required. Sometimes, went to shopping food for host family as they ordered.

Did you get an opportunity to study new languages and travel in Europe?

I was not only working as Au pair in Sweden but I also got opportunities to study Swedish language and travel so many countries in Europe. It sounded unbelievable, didn’t it? It was a valuable moment to study the language which I could communicate and understand local people or even the kid. At school, there were many students from all over the world such as Iceland, the UK, Mexico, Japan, Africa, India, Hong Kong, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, Italy, Romania Scotland and etc. See! Lots of friends at School! It was so fun because I met lots of friends and they were also so nice. We shared stories together and exchanged opinions to each other. Even though, this language was so difficult to study especially to speak, I was happy to create social life with amazing people I met in school.

Travelling in Europe! My dreams came true! During a year abroad, I made myself a trip 8 Countries in Europe which included Sweden. My trip was so challenging and stressful. To be on budget wasn’t easy to travel in Europe compared to Thailand! It was much more freaking expensive there. That was the big reason why I had planned in advance for my 8-country should be on budget. I went to France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Iceland. The trips were extremely significant and incredible to spend time with and got new friends as always when started the journey. I was so happy that I could stand on my feet in strange places and so proud of myself.

              

What were obstacles you encountered during your stay and how did you solve them?

The First thing was that the safety for children. Due to the fact that Swedish weather is changeable all the times, it’s crucial that Au Pair is aware of weather condition and outfits of children so they don’t get sick afterward. You must keep an eye of them at all times when they are playing toys or playing outside because accident could possibly happen. I suggest you observe local people’s behavior, nature of children and be cautious yourself with surroundings while being with kids. Yes, it seemed like very big challenge in the beginning so that I tried so hard to adapt to new environments as I had been there for long time. I believe safety is the most important for children.

Second thing is communication with host family sometimes was unclear and there was miscommunication between us, however; I understood that we were from different culture, spoke different language and had different prospective and always ask them questions in order to prevent miscommunication. Even though it wasn’t easy in the first place because I was so afraid and worried of what should ask or do with the kid or even everything in house. But luckily, my host family was very understanding and was happy that I asked questions instead of doing things without asking. This was good for both of us so the family knew what worked or didn’t work with me. Open communication was important as it helped us to get a long and build good relationship.

Last thing is Swedish language – I will say that Swedish language is difficult for Thais to learn because the pronunciation is different from Thai and English and there are tones that I had to learn in order to speak this language properly. However, what I did every day is practicing it with my host kid. She corrected my pronunciation and helped me learning new vocabulary every day. She was a very good teacher I had to admit that.

What did you learn from Au pair program?

I’ve learned and gained so much knowledge and new experiences as an au pair during my stay in Sweden. I met new people from everywhere as well as got to travel to many different countries in Europe. Explored new places where I hadn’t been before. It was such an amazing journey and sightseeing was incredible.  It was a once-in-a- life-time experience!

Do you think what qualification Au Pair should have? 

In my opinion, Au Pair should understand people, cultures and regulations of a host country in which he/she is living. This will help him/her so much to adapt to locals and their culture. This will lead to a win-win situation. Next is English language - it’s very important for Au pair to speak good English, for example; when Au pair gets lost while traveling or have to communicate with host family, English can help them with that. You will also have an opportunity explore the world and make international friends. Finally, childcare training is very important because it prepares you for the real job and ensures kids’ safety. No one is perfect since every day is learning, but, just be prepared.

What would you suggest friends who are interested for the program? Why?

If you fancy meeting new people or looking for a place to explore life “Life is journey” I would suggest everyone to follow your heart and go wherever you want. Try to learn something different and do different things in life. I bet you will learn many things from the world! In my point of view, Au Pair program is a wise alternative for you to discover yourself and open your eyes to new things and experiences that you haven’t seen before in life. Au Pair program provides you just that opportunity.