Au Pair Atrocity

I swallowed the lump in my throat and clicked post on my message in the Australia Aupairs Facebook group, "18-year-old au pair urgently seeking new host family, please help!" I looked in the mirror at my face, puffy from crying and began my nightly routine.

First, lock the door. I didn't need the creepy father knocking at my door to have some weird late-night conversation again. I'll pretend I'm asleep this time. Next, check the room's perimeter for bird-sized huntsman spiders. This house is infested. They come out from under the trim and the floorboards, and I can see them crawling above me on the ceiling at night. The light stays on because of this, and I'm becoming delusional from not sleeping.

Next, text my distressed parents and reassure them that I will find a new job and don't need to come home yet.

I didn't even believe this, but Australia was my dream, and leaving after ten days would be pathetic. What was I thinking coming across the world by myself? This is what I deserved for trying to take a budget shortcut.

After high school, I was unsure what I wanted to study at university. I only wanted to travel, specifically to my dream destination, Australia. I didn't have the funds, but I was determined to find a solution. After researching, I learned that people travelled to Australia to work as "au pairs."

An au pair is a nanny that helps a host family with childcare and household duties in exchange for accommodation, food, and payment.

Online, this looked like the perfect solution, and au pairs were raving about "finding their second family" while exploring Australia. I loved children, and au pairing would allow me to explore my dream country while making money. I immediately began researching.

I came across a free website called AupairWorld, which connected au pairs to host families. After many skype interviews, I found what appeared to be the perfect family. The kids were adorable, the house was in central Sydney, and they even wanted to pay me to go to Fiji over Christmas. I felt like I had cracked the gap-year cheat code.

After some planning, I set off on my journey across the world.

As you've probably gathered, this is not what happened. I arrived at a dirty, spider-infested house two hours outside of Sydney. I wasn't paid, and all there was to eat was stale bread. The family was strange, especially the children who were concerningly violent, and the father, who would never leave me alone.

Luckily, after posting my situation online, a woman who ran an au pair agency took me into her home and found me a new host family.

This wasn't the end of my issues. Although my new host family was a significant upgrade, there were still instances of incorrect payment, I had no privacy, and work and personal life seemed to blend. Living with another family was hard.

Eventually, I left au pairing and worked other jobs to support renting an apartment. Although I faced many obstacles, finally, things settled down, and I ended up having a wonderful time abroad.

My horrible first experience as an au pair landed me on the Australian TV show “The Project”, to talk about my experience and bring awareness to au pair exploitation in Australia.

Although au pairing may seem like the ideal way to travel on a budget, many people I met overseas found it less than ideal. To avoid exploitation, families and au pairs should be carefully arranged through a legitimate agency beforehand.

When it comes to budget travel, practice makes perfect. This was a learning experience, and I'm glad I didn't leave when things got hard because everything I went through made for a great story.

My next flight to Australia departs in 80 days, and I can tell you one thing for sure… you won’t find me working as an au pair.