Hej everyone! I’m Janna, and after finishing school in 2017, I decided to become an
Au Pair in Sweden. Living in a
Swedish family and experiencing the relaxed and cozy Swedish lifestyle has really influenced my way of living and thinking. This whole experience was incredible and I have collected so many new
memories during my time there! I had never been to Sweden before and I didn’t speak the language, so it was a bit of a bumpy start, but let me start from the beginning and tell you all about my Au Pair experience in Sweden.
My journey to becoming an Au Pair in Sweden
I already wrote another article about
my Au Pair adventure in Australia, where you can also read a little bit about who I am, so go check it out. And yes, I went abroad as an Au Pair twice.
When I was in my last year of school, I was thinking about what to do after my graduation, and after seeing a couple of videos online about being an Au Pair, I knew—this was exactly what I wanted to do. I have always loved looking after children, and I thought it was an exciting idea to live abroad, so an Au Pair stay seemed like the right choice for me. The videos I have seen were all from
Au Pairs in the USA, so it was my first idea to go there as well. I had Australia in mind as a second option, but the distance made me worried because I was very prone to
homesickness, so I kept looking for alternatives. I was searching for
agencies online, and when I found one I liked, I had a look at the countries they were offering and saw Sweden on the list. I had never been to Sweden before, but from watching movies and series set there, I had the feeling that it was a country I might like. The choice was made—I was going to
Sweden! I sent my application to the agency, and when everything was complete I started looking for a
Host Family. After several
interviews with different families, I was matched with my Host Family, and a few months later I moved to
Malmö.
My Host Family and my routine
The family consists of two parents and two children, a 3-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl. My host mum and the girl picked me up from the train station, and we spent the first weekend in their holiday house. The children still had time off, as it was still summer vacation, so the first week was a bit different from the routine we had when school and kindergarten started again. A
typical day usually started quite early, as my host parents were both often on business trips and left the house early. Thus, I was basically in charge from the moment the kids woke up, which for the younger one was sometimes between 5:30 and 6 am. I prepared breakfast for the kids, got the young boy dressed and ready, and then we walked to his daycare while the girl rode her bike to school. When I dropped the little one off at his daycare and came back home, I tidied up the kitchen, washed/hung up the washing, and vacuumed from time to time, and when I had finished the
household chores, I was free until I had to pick the little one up again in the afternoon.

During my time off, I went to my language course or met up with
friends for
fika (Swedish for a coffee break) or to hang out by the beach in the summertime. In the afternoon I prepared a little snack for my host kids, and then I usually played with the younger one, or he went over to the neighbor to play. The older girl usually had friends over to play with or went home with her friends. Most evenings I cooked dinner for us, and either my host parents came back from their trip and took over the evening routine or I did that. When my host parents were away for the night, the children's aunt usually spent the night with us to help out. Good
communication was definitely important, but it always worked out well for us.
I didn't have to work on the weekends, so I could use the time to meet up with friends and explore the country a little bit more. Sometimes we went on
trips to other cities, or we stayed in Malmö. One time we went on a moose safari, which was a pretty cool experience as well!
It really
wasn't easy at first; I was very shy back then, and I didn't speak the language. The children couldn't speak German or English, so communication was rather difficult. It was particularly difficult with the younger one, as I would have liked to say more, especially when we were outside playing or riding our bikes, but my language skills weren't good enough for that at the beginning. I was so glad that I did two
language courses, as they helped me a lot, and after 6 weeks my host parents started to only talk to me in Swedish, which was difficult at first, but that is what also really helped me to learn the language. It also definitely
helped to overcome this fear of speaking, which you often have when you are learning a new language. I've put together a few tips and tricks here that might help you learn Swedish.
Favorite Memories from My Stay
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Festivities such as Lucia Day and Midsummer.
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The Swedish mentality in general. They really try to celebrate the small things to have something to look forward to. On Wednesdays, for example, my Host Family always said that it was the “little Saturday”, and Friday was also sacred because then the working and school week was over and it was the weekend. On Fridays we either had tacos or we ordered food for dinner. And my Host Family always made sure that it was cozy, so candles were lit, etc.
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The language. I really fell in love with the country and the language. I still listen to Swedish music and watch Swedish movies/series, and every time I visit Sweden, I am looking forward to hearing the people talk in that beautiful language.
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Trips to Stockholm, Göteborg, and the island Ven, as well as the moose safari, are definitely some of my favorite memories.
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Spending a couple of days in Helsinki over my birthday and going to Oslo by bus for a weekend (7.5 hours from Malmö…).
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Spending almost every day with a really good friend I made there. We lived quite close, and we actually always met up during the week when we were off during the day, and then we also spent the weekends together. It has become such a special and great friendship that still exists today, and I am incredibly grateful for that.
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Fika. Cafés in Sweden are so cute and cozy, and they have so many delicious things like Kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls) and Chokladbollar (chocolate balls). This “coffee break” is such a great thing they invented, and I really miss it here in Germany the way they do it in Sweden.
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The good connection I have with my Host Family. Yes, it was hard in the beginning, and I was thinking about going back home, but I am so glad that I stayed for the whole 11 months! I am still in good contact with my Host Family and just got back from visiting them. It is crazy to see how the children develop over the years.
Curious on becoming an Au Pair in Sweden and experiencing Swedish culture? Then
register now for free on our website and
find your Host Family!