My name is Natalia Cremades, I’m 21 years old and I’m from Valencia. Now I am living the Au Pair experience in Milan, Italy.
My experience as an Au Pair started this summer; I had been wanting to live an experience of travelling, learning a new language, getting out of my comfort zone and having time for myself; I had already heard about Au Pair, and I found the company KIDOWE through Instagram. I easily contacted them, and they immediately informed me and integrated me into the Au Pair world.
This summer I met the family I am currently living with in Milan for the whole year. Although they live in Italy, we spent the summer in Fuerteventura and a couple of weeks in August in Lanzarote. The family has two girls, Anita and Alissa, aged 8 and 6. The family hired me mainly for the little one as she is a very nervous little girl with Down’s Syndrome and her mother needed a bit of extra help.
As the summer went on, I gradually got to know the little one and the rest of the family, feeling more and more integrated and comfortable with them; always they made me part of them as one of them and were always attentive to all my needs, as well as respecting my space and free time.
It was then that both her parents and I discovered that little Alissa and I had connected in a special way. You could say that I learned to listen to her and understand her in a way that no one had ever been able to before, making her calmer and calmer about everything around her, making us all enjoy her presence and a peace of mind that had long been forgotten.
I taught Alissa many things, just as she taught me much more than I had imagined. I learned above all that Alissa needed to be listened to and understood, and she immediately understood that I wanted to help her. I found the middle ground between a stricter attitude and a more tender attitude to help Alissa learn to behave better. With her I learned values such as patience and physical affection with hugs and rolling on the floor games, as well as other ways to say you love without using words.
As for the Au Pair experience itself, I lived it from a very personal point of view and with time to dedicate to myself. In the summer I had time to dedicate to drawing, reading, learning Italian… as well as going out from time to time with my family and friends. Without a doubt, on a personal level, I had the opportunity to get to know myself better and to know what I want or don’t want to do with my life, as getting out of your routine and home opens your mind and makes you see things from a different perspective that you might not have appreciated otherwise.
After the summer, they offered me the possibility of going to live with them in Milan for at least this year. After thinking it over and discussing it with my parents, I made the decision to move to Milan (and so far, it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life). Here in Milan my life started from scratch, with the same family, but in a new city for me.
As the months went by, I gradually got used to life in Milan, with a routine of study, sport, work, and social life; I was enrolled in Italian classes, and now I can speak it perfectly. I also go to the gym and I’m a member of a football team where I have the occasional match in addition to the weekly training sessions. I have met a lot of people and made many friends, both Spanish and Italian, with whom I go out and travel in my free time.
Regarding my routine as an Au Pair with the family and the girls, my timetable is as follows; every morning I oversee getting them ready and taking them to school. Then until 4:00 when I pick them up, I have free time for myself. My timetable is therefore more in the afternoon, from 4 to 8. During this time, I am at home with them, and I can play with them or draw or watch a movie with the older one and have a good time. Then in the evening I can either stay at home or go out for a drink. Of course, I organize myself with the parents to coordinate with them so that if they want an afternoon off, they can have it too. Regarding the weekends, I have both free weekends and weekends when I help them with the little one, and most of the time we go somewhere on a trip or do something fun. Whatever I want to tell them or if I want to talk about anything regarding how we organize ourselves, the family always gives me the opportunity to talk things over and solve any problems that may arise, so that we can all feel good and comfortable together.
For now, I have been living in Milan and with the family for six months, and I may have the opportunity to stay for a couple of years more if I decide to study fine arts here.
The Au Pair experience has changed my life
I highly recommend it.
Natali – Milan – Apríl 2022
