Oh wait, no. No I did not. The last time I checked P. Diddy's daily crisis is not the location of the pacifier or the stuffed horse Hugo. And I am definitely not making anything close to resembing Gs.
I know that I swore I would never blog about work to respect the privacy of the family, but I have convinced myelf that the daily tasks and lifestyle of an Au Pair is free game since the following information is general knowledge about the profession and not directed towards any party in particular.
I have been thrust into the postition of unglorified household glue. I am the silent adhesive that keeps things from falling apart due to the busy schedules of two parents with offspring. The laundry gets washed, hung to dry, and folded, the dishes make it into the diswasher and back onto the shelves again for the next day's culinary adventures, and the toys magically make it back onto the shelves. As fun as it would be to imagine that all of these objects come to life like in Toy Story and take care of themselves, Mom was right when she said, "Someone's got to do it." And that person happens to be me.
Well like any career change (I assure you, this is NOT my career), adjustments are inevitable. For example, when I was working as an interior designer, I used to have conversations about dimensions of floor plans, furniture arrangements and color selection, and the highlight of my week was using my creativity to its fullest potential and composing a Photoshop masterpiece. Now that I am an Au Pair, I talk about the different phases of child development, what colors and shapes the kid learned at school today, and Gymboree and playdates are the highlight of my week. Words like floor plan, elevation, and rendering have now been replaced with caca, nuggi, and that's not a toy.
However intellectually wasteful raising a two year old may be, there are a few perks to the job. For example, there is no commute seeing as my bedroom is about ten paces from "the office," I can wear pajamas all day, and no one will care if I skip a shower. Unfortunately, living at work as its drawbacks too, such as I live at work. There is no way to leave work at the office when the office is your home and your work is a two year old that is smart enough to know that you are his permanent playmate. There is also a grand lack of privacy with paper thin walls, sharing a bathroom with your boss, and nowhere to hide. When you live at work it is hard to determine the line between working and living. I will be honest, there have been more times than I can count on my fingers and toes that I have sacrificed food for privacy simply because I didn't dare leave the solitude of my room for a snack in fear that I would get caught up in the next fish game.
This is my life. I cook, I clean, I discipline. Everyday, for an entire year. Future Au Pairs should be aware that this job is difficult, things are never a walk in the park, and you have on heck of a responsibility shaping the life/lives of the children for the future. After all, if the job were easy, the parents would do it themselves.
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