Now that I have had an au pair for five months, what is the first thing I think when I wake up in the morning? Laundry.With three adults and three children ages five months to six years and an experiment in cloth diapering, my family generates mountains of laundry each week. My germ phobia does not help with Mount Laundry – when my kids come back home each day after school, I immediately remove their school outerwear and put it in the washing machine.
At bathtime, I add the kids’ and my clothes plus the baby’s cloth diapers, fill the dispenser with powdered detergent and white vinegar, and run the washing machine.
Before Jana, our au pair, arrived, I would wake up each morning to a dryer full of wrinkled clothing, a filter stuffed with lint, and a washer-load of wet clothing. I am starting to think we have a household Brownie because it’s like magic to groggily walk over to the laundry area only to find it gleamingly clean and empty. And when I turn back to the living room, I do a doubletake to see laundry baskets full of smooth, folded clothing neatly divided into groups destined for individual rooms.
Every weekend I make up the child care schedule for our au pair for the coming week. With the advent of the school year, it looks something like this:
Monday to Friday: 7am-9am, 1pm-7pm
Saturday: 10am-3pm
On weekdays our au pair helps get the kids out the door to school, a Herculean task, and then spends an hour putting the children’s laundry away and tidying up the play areas. During her break she goes to TOEFL class, walks to the grocery store, cooks for herself or takes a rest. On days when the kids have afterschool activities, our au pair takes the baby for afternoon walks while I work. And our au pair's schedule changes to accommodate my work schedule. This week I had two morning meetings – our au pair took care of the baby in the bedroom while I held meetings in the living room.
Living in an urban area means that our au pair does not have to drive everywhere. An outdoor enthusiast, she walks and bikes around the Hoboken and Weehawken waterfront and takes the kids on the Light Rail to visit old trains and nature trails at Liberty State Park in Jersey City. I keep a supply of tickets on hand – the kids prefer the train to car travel and continually beg to ride the Light Rail to afterschool activities.
Halfway through our au pair’s stay with us, my husband and I are discussing what we will do when she leaves – a lot depends on the progress of our individual careers. But even if we never have another au pair, we will be forever grateful to Jana for making life with a new baby so easy and plan to stay in touch via Skype and future visits.
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