Antonia’s Au Pair Experience in Turkey

Antonia is a young girl from Germany who decided to spend 3 months as an Au Pair in Turkey. In this testimonial, Antonia highlights her favorite and least favorite aspects of being an Au Pair, she opens up about the ups and downs of her journey and gives an interesting insight into participating in this program for a short time. 

"We grow through what we go through" It's a quote that reminds me that even though there are challenges and new life situations it's something that will teach me and make me grow.

Of course, if you decide to travel to a country where you've never been before and live with a family that you barely know it can seem scary at first.

 

But let's talk about my stay in Turkey more concretely.

I was living with my Au Pair family for 3 months, had my own apartment and the family was treating me like I was a part of their family. I am happy and extremely thankful for the time I could spend with them. We had food together, they took me on trips and adventures and showed me the city and a lot of beautiful places around. I had one free day per week that I used for going to the city, the beach, some coffee shops or just to discover my surroundings. I loved to be with the children and the whole family.
 

At some point, I started to have some struggles with myself, with the question if I could take the responsibility of being an Au Pair because I realized that children want to grow up with their families and not be surrounded 10-14 hours per day by a person they will need to let go after some time again. Anyways the boy and especially the girl became like a small brother and sister to me.

 

It was not work for me, it was a passion. During my life, I gained a lot of experience with children but on some days I felt like the expectations were unreachable.

As a 19-year-old without any own children, you don't know everything about parenting, and even as a parent you need to grow on those tasks.

By spending the whole day with the child you will take a big part in forming, teaching, and raising the child. So to everyone, it should be clear that the Au Pair will have a different way of handling the children than the parents do.

 

Some days were not easy with a six and almost 2-year-old but I could forget all of those hard times when I just saw them smile. When the girl was learning to swim I was proud of her like a mother. When I saw them happy I was happy. I learned about the difficult parts of being a parent, but I also learned how much happiness children can bring into your life.

 

So, as a result, I can say that it was a pleasure for me to get insights into the life of the family, and be a part of it. It was a great chapter in my life and I am super thankful for the opportunity.

But also I decided for myself that 3 months is a too short period. Of course, every child is different and my little girl trusted me quite fast and intensely but I think everyone can understand how it feels when you trust someone deeply and lose this person. If that happens many times in a short period, like 4 times a year if there is always an Au Pair for 3 months, then at some point this child will not be able anymore to find trust in anyone.

 

As an Au Pair, you know that all of this will have an end but anyway, it will be hard as well. At least for me, it was because no matter how happy I was to go back to see my own family, the family in Turkey had a special place in my heart.