Disclaimer prepare to read the word family over and over, we aspire to this! š https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQuc7wfO16Q. This page starts with details on our family, has our previous AuPair recommendations midway, and has some family photos at the end. Please take a look and we hope to get to know you!
Hello! We are a fun loving family based in Sunnyvale California. We would love for you to be our next AuPair. Please read this to find out more about our family and don’t hesitate to contact us if you think we are a good fit for you. We put this together to answer most basic questions we see but feel free to ask us anything!
About Us: We have 2 children; an 21 month boy and a 7 year old girl. Our son is a fun loving smiley guy who loves snuggles and to play. Our daughter likes all things hair and makeup, playing with friends, board games, and craft projects. Host dad is starting a construction company and loves all things automotive, the beach, and pizza. Host mom works at a tech company and loves traveling and trying new foods (except pizza, she is sick of pizza because of host dad). We joke around with each other and deal with problems constructively. We celebrate both American and Indian holidays and events as host dad was born in the USA and host mom spent most of her childhood in Canada. Our previous AuPairs have all said we are easy to talk to and we want to have a genuine relationship to know our AuPairs and extend our family. We hope this will be the start of a lifelong bond as we keep in touch with our previous AuPairs and plan to visit them in the future.
Places we have traveled to: Within the USA of course, Canada, Mexico, Tahiti, Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Peru, Israel, Taiwan, China, Dubai, Egypt, Scotland, England, Turkey, Belize, Thailand, India, and Greece.
Where we live: We are located near San Francisco California and are nearby to many travel hotspots such as Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz Beach, Monterey, Redwood Forest, Yosemite, and Big Sur to name a few.Ā Ā There are a ton of hidden gems that you can get to know. Ā Los Angeles is a 6-hour drive and there are many fantastic stops along the Pacific Coast Highway as well. Ā There are many outdoor activities here and there are great nature trails next to our house. Ā The weather here is pleasant year-round and we don’t have crazy traffic like Los Angeles.Ā Ā Santa Cruz is popular for surfing and if you enjoy winter sports, Lake Tahoe is famous for its ski slopes.Ā Ā There are also literally hundreds of Au Pairs here so it is easy to make friends with familiar and different backgrounds as well. An LCC told us about 80% of AuPairs in California are actually in Northern California where we live and there are over 400 in this area.Ā Ā Our town was rated happiest city in America recently.Ā Ā There are also many other AuPairs in the area to make friends with. Please see the bottom for photos of some of the local attractions.
Our Previous AuPairs: We love them! What can we say? Our current AuPair is from France and is an older sibling to our children. In the past we have been fortunate to host two amazing AuPairs from Argentina in the past and they remain part of our family. We nominated them for AuPair of the year and hope we will nominate you as well! We spent weekends at the beach, watching movies, hanging out, and taking vacation trips. One even attended an Indian wedding with us and wore traditional Indian clothes. If there was an issue we resolved it together. Along the way we learned about each other’s cultures and had a great time (Empanadas and Fernet!, Raclette Cheese!). We plan to visit them soon. If we are close to matching they are all happy to speak with you. However, we ask to do this only if you are interested in matching with our family as we want to respect their time.
Who we think would fit best in our family: We are looking for an AuPair that is responsible, wants a relationship with our family, the children, and wants to live the American experience. While there might be hard days it is super important we find someone who enjoys being with the children. This means engaging and knowing them vs just keeping them safe. If this describes you we are sure you will have a wonderful time with us! We don’t want a live in worker. Our previous AuPairs made lifelong friends here, travelled, explored the local sights, and also spent quality time with us. We were nominated for Host Family of the year and we believe this is because how we get to know our AuPairs and how much we care for them. We want you to explore, grow, and follow your dreams…and if you want we can help you along the way! We helped our first AuPair take classes at Stanford which is a world famous university and only 20 mins away from our house.
Possible Deal Breakers: We are quite experienced host family so we have a pretty good idea. First of all we are vegetarian and don’t require you to be vegetarian, but we find our family fits best with someone flexible around this. All our previous AuPairs were not vegetarian and it worked out fine. However, if you need to eat meat all the time it will probably not be a good fit as it will be a difficult adjustment. We love to eat pizza, plant based burgers, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Italian, salads, and we would love to try your foods too. In addition, we have cameras in our kids room and play area. It helps us check in on the kids when we are out of the house. They are in plain view and we are upfront about them. We also visit family often or they come visit us. Our AuPair needs to be comfortable with grandparents, brothers, and sisters visiting. One of our previous AuPair’s family visited us and we got to know them which was awesome. We hope to get to know your family too! We sometimes travel to Los Angeles, Chicago, or Toronto so we need someone willing to travel a few times a year outside of vacations. While we can’t promise it every time, we don’t need as much childcare help when visiting family and we usually set aside extra fun time so you can explore the cities. Host dad’s brother in LA also has an AuPair and our previous AuPair had fun exploring the city and universal studios with her.
The Arrangements: Our house is a cozy house in a very nice location. There are many things to do and hang out nearby. There are a few parks close by and it is great for outdoor activities like running, biking, swiming, and hiking. Almost any activity you can think of is available here so feel free to ask us if your into something specific. You will of course have your own room. We want you to be comfortable, it has a queen bed, a desk, a dresser, and a computer. If you want something else in it let us know, usually we can accommodate it as we want you to be comfortable. There are two bathrooms in the house, one is in our bedroom and the other in the hallway. When guests are not over you will have the bathroom to yourself. When guest are over they may also use it but in general the kids and ourselves use the bathroom in our room and not yours. We will share one of our cars with you so you can get around. We have enough cars that this is not an issue. We ask that you cover the fuel that you use for personal activities as we don’t know what trips you will be taking. We cover the other expenses like insurance and maintenance and also the fuel if it is used for AuPair duties or helping the family. In general, if you are a genuine family member we will do whatever we can to make this the best experience possible for you. If you have some requests or something above does not work for you please ask when we interview. The only thing we request is that we talk about the big things you need before matching so there are not any misunderstandings when you arrive.
The Schedule: We need help Monday through Friday from 9am to 6pm currently until about July 2024. Weekends and evenings are free. Starting August 2024, when our younger child starts pre-school the schedule will become a split schedule where we need help in the morning to get him to school around 8:30 and then again in the afternoon when he returns at about 12:30 until the evening. We are flexible when we can so you have a great experience and hope you will be reasonable with us as well. A few times our AuPairs had trips where we ended early Friday or started late Monday so they can enjoy a bit longer trip. In addition we were able to accommodate a class one of your AuPairs had during the day.
If you made it this far and are interested, feel free to connect with us. You can reach out at aolcarman18@yahoo.com or WhatsApp at 22four430sevenone90.
Previous AuPair Recommendations/Notes:
“Thank you so much for everything you have done for me this year. I will forever be grateful for your generosity and love. You have always treated me as part of your family, and I feel deeply connected to you now. I wish for all the Au pairs out there to have a family like yours.”
“Hello au pairs!
My host family supported me from day one and makes me feel like Iām part of their family. They are so loving, caring, transparent, and kind. Thereās no words to explain how great this family is. They have two adorable kids who stole my heart. Annika is like my little sister, she is a very cheerful, kind and is super friendly, Iām sure that you will enjoy playing with her. And about Kiaan what can I say? Heās the most cute baby, heās always smiling and doing funny faces. They shared their Indian and American traditions with me and they allowed me to share my culture with them.
They are always on the look out of how Iām feeling, what are my needs or concerns, If I need help with anything, theyāre willing to help me.
They see me as a member of their family and include me in every activity (Trips, bike ride, ice kiting, going to the beach, family dinners, movie nights).
They are a very fun family, we are always making jokes together, we can laugh at each other, we can talk about everything. The relationship I have with them is awesome and Iām sure they will include you as they did with me.
I hope they can find an incredible au pair and Iām sure youāre gonna enjoy it with them.
Melisa”
“Hello, I Ģm Gabriela from Argentina and I want to share my experience as an Au Pair in USA, spending a year with the Raniwala Family.
I had the opportunity to care for Anika, who is a beautiful, intelligent and sweet little girl. We shared many moments together, outings, events, days at the park, swimming lessons, breakfasts and lunches.
They are a very calm family that resolves everything through peaceful communication. Even after several years, we still keep in touch through video calls and I hope they can come to visit me soon.
It has been an incredible experience, and if you are an Au Pair, I wholeheartedly recommend choosing this family.
Gabriela”
Photos (used with permission from our previous AuPairs)
Here are photos of some local places, let us know if you have questions about things to do here!
