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Au pairs’ testimonials

 

For over twenty years we’ve been placing au pairs successfully with host families in London and beyond.

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Linn

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Becoming an au pair was one of the many things I wanted to do after high school, but I never thought it would really happen. Then in the spring of my final year of school I put my mind to it and started my application for a life on the other side of the North Sea. I searched Google for a good agency, and found Swedish Connection - which unlike many others offered free placement!

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Emma

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I really recommend going with Swedish Connection as there is always someone to talk to. They helped me when I chose to change family last autumn and I couldn't have been more grateful for all the support I received during that time. Many of my friends also recommended me to contact Swedish Connection. 

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Linnéa

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For everyone thinking about going to London and working as an au pair - do it! It’ll be the best thing you have ever done. The au pair life is the perfect combination of living the well known London-life, meeting new people, growing in yourself, making memories for life and making money in the meantime. 

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Linn
Image by Amy-Leigh Barnard
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Linn

 

May 2020

Becoming an au pair was one of the many things I wanted to do after high school, but I never thought it would really happen. Then in the spring of my final year I put my mind to it and started my application for a life on the other side of the North Sea. I searched Google for a good agency, and found Swedish Connection - which unlike many others offered free placement! I got in touch with both Sophia and Marie, and then began interviewing with host families. I actually only had interviews with two different families before I felt confident about a lovely Swedish/ Australian family in Fulham with two wonderful children aged 9 and 12. I get on so well with them all, even during the lockdown of corona times.
 

The last 8 months have so far been the absolute best of my life. I've met so many lovely people and for the first time in my life I have been able to spend my time (considering all the free time you have as an au pair) deciding entirely for myself what to do when I'm not working, which has been so wonderful. I have never had as many fun weeks and weekends as I've had here. Weekdays are filled with lunches, picnics and museums, and weekends with nights out, shopping and hanging with friends. I have learned which places are far too overpriced for an au pairs wallet, which my top 5 shops are and that the Tesco meal deal is actually not so bad at the end of the week before payday. London always has things to offer, no matter your budget.
 

Being part of a new family was a completely new experience for me. Small things like going and taking food from the fridge and generally making yourself feel at home in someone else's house were not completely obvious from the start. But quite quickly I began to have that "home feeling", and I learned how important it was to dare to take up some space and actually let myself feel at home. Being an au pair has taught me to take responsibility in new situations, where you suddenly are the adult who is expected to take responsibility. I have also learned how it is to live away from home and to fix my own food and laundry.
 

As the year begins to come to its end, I am incredibly happy that I chose to go to London, despite ending with an incredibly unexpected pandemic (which was not part of my plans last autumn when I sat down to book a single ticket to my new home!). I have learned a lot and have had so much fun and will carry with me so many wonderful memories!

Emma
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Emma

 

May 2020

My name is Emma and I worked as au pair in London from autumn 2019 to spring 2020. Working as an au pair is really a very unique experience. Moving to another country and moving in with a family who you don't know can for some mean freedom and for others mean facing their greatest fear. You will get to know an amazing family, share their culture and apply your own knowledge to new situations. You will meet many wonderful people, maybe even your best friend, who will be in the same situation as you. You will have many wonderful memories and new traditions that you will look back on and really miss. For example, one thing I really miss about my au pair life is meeting one of my friends every Monday night to talk about the last week.
 

Being able to discover a new city is also something that I loved. Whether you have been to London before or not, there are always new places to discover and see! Sometimes we would get on a bus and drive around just to see those streets and places we otherwise would have missed. Thanks to all the people I met, London felt like home. I always had someone to turn to, felt safe, and had the honor of knowing the real London that tourists don't get to see, because I lived there. London really became my second home.
 

You will get lots of memories that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. One of my best memories is when some friends and I travelled up to York and then took a bus trip to Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

With the good days there will still be days that are more difficult than others - just like you have at home. But with friends, old and new, you can get through even those days. And I promise that when the good days come, the bad days will feel so worth it!
 

I really recommend going with Swedish Connection as there is always someone to talk to. They helped me when I chose to change family last autumn and I couldn't have been more grateful for all the support I received during that time. Many of my friends recommended me to contact Swedish Connection as they had a very good experience with them and the company has in itself a very good reputation among all au pairs in London!

If you choose to go as an au pair, you really will have a fantastic journey ahead of you with lots of adventures and wonderful memories that you will carry with you for the rest of your life! If you decide to go with Swedish Connection you'll also have the support and security that they offer along the way!

Linnea
Image by Evelyn  Paris
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Linnéa

 

May 2020

When becoming an au pair, lots of questions and thoughts are involved. For me, the process of becoming an au pair was really quick and spontaneous, while others may spend months planning their stay. Whatever your case is, I hope to help with some of the bigger questions and worries.
 

My name is Linnéa. I am 20 years old and I’m from Sweden. My whole au pair experience started in January this year when I was visiting one of my best friends who were studying in London. At that time I was incredibly bored of my life in Sweden and my routine just going around in circles. I wanted to try something new, grow in myself and try to figure out what I want to do in life. I had been thinking about working as an au pair for a while but hadn’t really looked into it. During my stay I started looking at different ways of becoming an au pair and set a goal that I’d live in London in three months time. I happened to stumble onto Swedish Connection’s website. Reading about the agency, I immediately felt like I wanted to talk to them. There and then I contacted Sophia who helped me start my journey and telling me what the next step would be. Back in Sweden I started filling in my application, collecting references and writing my “Dear Family letter”. After sending everything in I almost straight away got two families who wanted to interview me. Since everything felt right, I went on with the first of the two families and in just two weeks it was planned that I would move to London on the 1st of March.
 

I don’t think I fully understood what was going to become a reality and that I actually was about to leave my old life behind and start something completely new. The last week before I left was honestly the hardest. Starting to pack all my stuff in to two huge suitcases felt so weird. At that time, I was in a relationship and that made everything so much harder. It started crumbling a bit even before I had left and I was told that I should stay home if I really cared about our relationship. I know that many others are in the same position. Trying to decide whether they should follow their dreams of doing something or holding back because of a person at home. Honestly, taking the decision to go was the best thing I have ever done. I needed to do something for me. One of my friends told me that “Everything at home will still be here when you get back, and not going will be one of your biggest regrets when you realise that the things holding you back wasn’t worth it.” and that is the best description of the whole situation.
 

Finally, the day came where I had my life in two big bags and was crying in the car with my family on our way to Arlanda. Saying goodbye was horrible, but I have to say, sitting there waiting for boarding was one of the most exciting moments of my life.
 

When I arrived my new host dad and one of the children met me at the airport. Talking English all the time was exhausting the first week. Constantly having to think while you speak is even more tiring than I thought, but after a while I was speaking fluently, thinking and even dreaming in English.
 

The weeks went by smoothly and I had a great time. Then, Covid-19 seemed to feel like it was time to take over London. As a result of schools shutting down and my host-mum being a key worker the family didn’t need me anymore. At that time I had been in the family for three weeks. Starting to look for a new family was rather stressful, but at the same time I knew there were families who needed me more. Just like the first time I ended up going for the first family I spoke to. They were positioned in the part of London I wanted to live in and they were also going to the countryside during lockdown. Me being a person who loves the nature I immediately felt like that would be the perfect position for me if I was going to stay in the UK during lockdown. Once again, I packed my suitcases and two days later I was off to my new family.
 

Writing this almost six weeks later, I’m sitting in my bed on the countryside with the most wonderful host-family I could’ve wished for. I’m taking care of two twin boys aged 3,5 and a girl aged 7. My days is built up of me taking care of and entertaining them as well as making dinner and supervising bedtime. To be honest it doesn’t really feel like work since I really enjoy doing all of that stuff with them.
 

My stay here have been rather weird having to isolate and going into lockdown. Luckily my first two weeks were somewhere close to normal. I met new people almost every day, went out with new friends on weekends and had lovely lunches in lots of different places all around London. Even though I didn’t really have the chance to live the normal “London-life” it was still enough for me to totally fall in love with this city. The people, the constant buzz even at 4am on a Sunday, the beautiful parks and views in Richmond to the beautiful tall buildings around Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Oxford Street. The shopping, sitting at a café drinking coffee and looking at people, taking long walks with friends you just met and buying PizzaHut at 3am after a night out.
 

All of these things is what makes me want to stay here, patiently waiting for things to slowly go back to normal.

For everyone thinking about going to London and working as an au pair - do it! It’ll be the best thing you have ever done. The au pair life is the perfect combination of living the well known London-life, meeting new people, growing in yourself, making memories for life and making money in the meantime. I hope to see you in London!

Best regards,
Linnéa

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