What is it like to host a live-in au pair in Luxembourg?

What is it like to host a live-in au pair in Luxembourg? Kerry, who is originally from Scotland, moved to Luxembourg when she was a child in 1982 with her parents. She lives in Niederanven with her husband and their two children.

The option of an au pair appealed to Kerry and her husband after finding it "reasonably difficult" to find a consistent and reliable babysitter to suit their needs.

Despite Kerry's parents living in Luxembourg, that wasn’t an option in terms of childcare and a more formal arrangement was needed to balance the needs of the family with that of their professional lives.

With Kerry's husband's work involving travel abroad, an au pair seemed like a good solution to the childcare question, she said.

The idea of hosting an au pair worked out well for her family, with Kerry calling it a "life saver". Having another adult living in their home gave them a sense of enormous reassurance.

Their first au pair came from Brazil, arriving in Luxembourg a few months before lockdown happened in March 2020. She proved to be "very, very helpful" during this unprecedented time, Kerry recalled.

Kerry was pregnant with her second child, at the time, and the au pair was in place a few months before her due date. This meant there was a comfortable lead-in time for the au pair to settle in and for everyone to adjust.

Kerry described the presence of the au pair as being comforting during her pregnancy.

"To have someone here was great in the case that I needed to go to hospital in the middle of the night and because she was here when I was on maternity leave it meant that I could get a bit of rest. My daughter was three at the time and as it was during lockdown it was really helpful."

Kerry said she would "definitely recommend" hosting an au pair and has hosted three from different parts of the world over the past four years.

Her last au pair, who came from the Philippines, was such a hit with the family that once her one-year contract was up they converted the arrangement to employ her as a nanny. She is also live-in.

"Our kids adore her. We have complete faith and trust in her."

There are key considerations when thinking about hosting an au pair with the availability of appropriate accommodation a must, given that au pairs must be live-in and have their own private room. Kerry said her home is particularly adapted.

"Our house is very well-suited as she has the top floor to herself."

Some other points to consider, Kerry added, is that someone can only work as an au pair up until the age of 29.

Also, the children must be in full time childcare outside the home. For Kerry, the mornings and the evenings were when her au pair was needed. Her au pair also had three evenings off a week.

When it came to finding an au pair, Kerry said that she used a specialist website, where you create a profile and then set up calls and conduct interviews online. She also recommended the MyGuichet.lu website as being “very helpful” for information around the process.

"It is important to find the right fit as you don't want to end up having an additional [person] to mind. It's important to speak about your expectations in advance. Some are more natural than others with the kids. If you find a good fit it is a great thing," she said.

Another point is the fact that a host family must provide access to language courses. Kerry added that her au pairs studied French at the INL.

She added that the au pairs themselves took the initiative to book the course and the family took care of the cost.

In terms of visa requirements, she added a note of caution if your au pair is a third country national.

"I would say just to give yourself enough time as often from approval to getting the visa it can take 90 days."