Welcome Letter to the Au Pair
Originally translated from Deutsch
Dear AuPair
We are delighted to welcome you to our family.
We are:
Mom Franziska (39 years old), Dad Christian (40 years old) and our 3 wonderful children Johanna (9 years old), Anian (7 years old) and Zacharias (soon to be 4 years old). We are a fun, adventurous and happy family. We love traveling in our camper van, love nature, exercise and discovering new places. We love being in warm places, mostly in Italy, love playing by the sea, but at home we often go into the forest and play by the stream. In winter there is usually snow where we live, where we go sledding right by the house. Johanna can already ski quite well, Zacharias will learn this year. We love winter sports, skiing, ice skating or sledding. Anian doesn't like the cold so much, he prefers to go back to the warmth straight away.
Otherwise we like exercise, whether it's cycling, swimming in the nearby Schliersee or Tegernsee, or in the outdoor pool. We parents love hiking in the mountains, and we take Johanna and Zacharias with us. Christian also likes climbing. Johanna and Zacharias have also found great pleasure in climbing.
Our dear Anian was born with Down syndrome and he is just cool! But of course he is difficult to raise. If he doesn't want to do something, he likes to sit in the middle of the road and it takes a lot of patience to motivate him to carry on. Anian also likes to be out and about, likes to be around people, and is very sociable. But if the stimuli are too much for him and I notice it too late, he likes to scream quite loudly or goes on strike, as described above. We try to include Anian as much as possible. I take him to parent-child gymnastics, ball sports, the bike park, the playground and much more. However, you can already see the muscular hypotonia (weakness of muscle tone) caused by the syndrome. Anian can walk and likes to move around, but you must never forget that everything Anian does, whether speaking, crafting, eating, running, walking, jumping on the trampoline, is 1000 times harder for him and he has to exert himself much more than other children. That's why he gets tired quickly and needs constant breaks. It's also difficult for Anian to keep himself busy. Unfortunately, he spends far too much time on his tablet or watching TV for my liking. Anian also has a low awareness of danger. I do let him have some freedom and explore the garden on his own, but I always have to keep an eye on him.
Johanna is an incredibly great big sister. She is very caring, especially towards Anian, and she can handle him pretty well. Johanna is fully integrated into the ski club, sings in the Protestant children's choir, likes to do crafts and has recently started sewing on the sewing machine. Unfortunately, she is often neglected in our family.
Zacharias is such a sweet little 3-year-old, but he also has quite a temper and unfortunately hasn't been able to deal with Anian very well yet. Unfortunately, the two of them aren't able to play together yet. Zacharias has also been hit and pushed a lot (unintentionally, of course) by Anian. Yes, they are two brothers who tend to argue, but it's difficult for us. I can't leave the two boys alone, not for a second, because I'm afraid that Anian will, for example, push Zacharias down the stairs as a reflex. Zacharias has a lot of energy, likes to go to gymnastics and wants to start playing football next spring.
Christian and I have been married for 10 years and also have a small company where we rent out mobile homes. Every day we try to manage our turbulent, exhausting and lovable family as harmoniously as possible. Unfortunately, we have been less and less successful in doing this for almost 2 years. Our batteries are empty and that's why we "look forward to and need" YOU, dear AuPair.
My wishes and expectations of YOU: I am alone with all 3 children every afternoon. I drive the children to their sports activities, organize the household and also have to put food on the table. In the mornings I am usually in the home office or out and about. I need you for the afternoons, where you play with or supervise one of the children while I drive the other child to therapy or for leisure time. I ask that you help with the household, that is, setting and clearing the table, dishwasher, tidying up toys, vacuuming, occasionally cooking. I also need your help on the weekend, but usually only in the mornings.
What can we offer you? A beautiful room with a skylight and an outside window. We will completely redesign the room for you, you are welcome to tell me your wishes, what you would like to have in the room, I will try to fulfill your wish. Otherwise we takeI'd be happy to go with you anywhere if you want. We can go on trips together into the city, into nature, to the lake, into the mountains, or on holiday to Italy. We want to fully integrate you, but also give you and us privacy and distance. I think it's really very brave of you to take such a step, to live in another country and with another family for a year. I want you to feel comfortable with us. Please always talk to me. Christian and I can both speak English and are looking forward to improving our English with you and, of course, to teaching you the best German possible. We have a good language school here in Miesbach that you can attend in the mornings. We also have many integrative offers in the Protestant community center in Miesbach, such as the international women's breakfast.
I think it's important to treat each other and show respect, as well as to communicate in a friendly and polite way. In our family, there are sometimes arguments, it gets loud and we swear, but we always try to have a happy and harmonious family life. And you can make a big contribution to this by supporting us with our daily tasks and activities. Finally, dear AuPair, I am so happy about your support and I hope that we talk a lot to each other so that we can get to know your customs, wishes and values and you can get to know the customs, expectations and values of our family and we can try to combine them together.
We are very much looking forward to seeing you
Your family
Franziska, Christian, Johanna, Anian and Zacharias