Work abroad in Katja's family for 10-12 Months starting from Mar 2024 as an Au Pair to take care of 1 children of 1 - 5 years old in Groß-Zimmern, Hesse Germany

Hello!

Let us provide you with some information about us, the parents: we are both professors at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Katja is a (bio)chemist, while Kay is telling everybody he is a computer scientist of sorts, but in fact he is a physicist by training. We have one lovely son, Erik Immanuel (3.5 years).
Our home is a fine house with a nice garden on the outskirts of Darmstadt, which itself is located 20 miles to the south of Frankfurt with its International Airport conveniently located at “our” highway to Frankfurt. Our town is called Groß-Zimmern and features a large number of sport clubs and sports facilities, as well as a lot of opportunities for outdoor activities. We will provide you with your own studio-apartment, complete with bathroom and a small kitchen (and Wifi, of course), and a bike for the time of your stay.

We have both lived some two years in the US – Kay at the West Coast (UC San Diego), Katja at the East Coast (Harvard Medical School). Katja was an exchange student at Oxford University in the UK, too. After great experiences abroad, we hope to give something back by offering you some insights into our daily life and culture.

Now to the important guy: Erik. Naturally, it’s hard for parents to say something balanced about the personality of their kids, but since you will want to know a bit about him before you join us, we give it a try: he is a very lively child with an unrelenting curiosity about the world. He seems to be attracted to all sorts of machinery (recently he is interested in all sorts of conducts and tubing). He is fond of numbers, has a good sense of rhythm and loves to run around in our house. He can also spend long periods of time with his jigsaws and watercolors. He loves our garden and playgrounds of which we have plenty in a reasonable distance. He got his own head and compromises seem not to be his favorite concept. However, he knows which lines he is not supposed to cross. So - we think he is great!

We are looking for an experienced, reliable, conscientious woman who will love to be part of a family but is at the same time able to get around by herself. Obviously, you should love children, enjoy talking to them and show a real interest in their lives. Erik attends kindergarten until about 14:30. We make sure he gets there in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon. After that, it would be your duty to look after Erik. Dinner is the most important meal of the day. We enjoy preparing food together and discussing events of the day over a good meal. Then, your evening program with Erik starts: brushing his teeth, taking a shower/bath, playing for another while and then going to bed with a bedside story.

Since we are fluent in English and German we can use either language to communicate with you. Moreover, we want to expose Erik to a second language. Therefore, we expect you to speak your native tongue and German with him, while we will support you in acquiring German language skills.

You should also be willing to help with children-related household tasks, which is mainly helping with dishes, children’s laundry and keeping Erik’s room well-organized. Please note that these are kids-related duties only.

We oppose so-called social media and expect you to take no pictures of any of us or our home without our consent.

Lastly, a driver’s license would be nice, but is not a necessity. We expect you to have relevant work experience and references.

Working hours are 30 hours per week. Pay consists in providing your apartment and food, paying for a language school (or university class if you prefer) and your language books, health insurance, pocket money of € 400.-/month and one airline roundtrip from your home to Germany. The job starts beginning of January 2023 (or later) and is for one year.

We would be most happy to hear from you!

Katja and Kay