What I Learned After TWO MONTHS WITH AN AU PAIR | Raising Bilingual Children

Our family was recently lucky enough to host an au pair for two months. In this video, I share 5 things that I learned while hosting a native French speaker for an extended amount of time. This experience was really my children's first encounter with a native French speaker for a lengthy amount of time so I also share how their interactions went and how we all grew.
subscribe: bit.ly/3BGFnyP
liveyourlanguagenow.com
playlists that might interest you:
STARTING YOUR BILINGUAL PARENTING JOURNEY: bit.ly/3q6M3nP
BILINGUAL PARENTING TOOLKIT: bit.ly/2ZM4i6G

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

Wow! What an incredible video - so fascinating and also very helpful. I am SO THRILLED to hear about your success and about how quickly those things were ironed out and how helpful the experience was. Knowing that you can make those mistakes and they can just evaporate is so freeing.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you so much for watching! I'm so happy to finally be sharing this video. It took a while to get out, but there was so much to say. Yes! It was so freeing to realize that my mistakes wouldn't follow my kids around for their whole lives. It was a breath of fresh air to finally feel like I had permission not to be perfect 🙂.

[@LyzJGV]

Congratulations Stefanie ! I’m glad your hard word is indeed paying off. I sometimes feel that I’m not paying enough attention to my accents so that’s really reassuring. Makes me really happy to hear. We do have an au pair but to add a third language so even she speaks great English we don’t get the benefits of a native speech. Encore une fois félicitations Stéphanie !!! C’est super pour tes fils

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Merci, Lily! For watching and for your encouragement 🙂. Concerning accent, I remember my professor telling me that kids will speak like their peers, not their parents, but I always wondered how that would play out if there were no peers (yet). Glad my reassurance gives you some peace of mind as well! It sounds like you're doing what we're considering with the au pair and a third language. If we do go that route, I might have some questions for you. Thanks for following our journey!

[@LyzJGV]

Thanks Stephanie Thank you you are super reassuring and motivating. It’s sometimes hard to find support as this seems so unusual - not to say weird- to many people. Of course I’m happy if I can help but we are not that good so far as they both theme to speak in English. It s a bit long to explain but there s reason behind that and basically now that the habit s in place it s more complicated but we ll get there. I guess it ll be easier with a new person but we love our current au pair 😂 at some point maybe we could organise something between our sons once in french and once in English and see their reactions 😂

[@olivier4067]

Thanks Stephanie!! This is so inspiring!! This is so interesting to get this feedback about the mistakes, pronunciation and amount of native exposure ! It is so freeing! Thanks so much for sharing this! And again congratulations with the job you’ve done with you son!!

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Olivier, thanks so much for watching and thank you for your kind words! I'm so glad you found this video to be inspiring 🙂.

[@ilariandre_]

I truly believe it is a easy, fast and financially convenient thing to do having an au paire instead of paying a teacher o sending the kid to a language school.. the only thing that makes me do not having an au pair is that we are very reserved and we don't like having people around.. we hardly invite our family members or friends to our house... I'm introvert and my 3yo is still scared of strangers. For now I send my daughter to an English school twice mornings a week. It's expensive and kids talk to each other in our native language but she an hear real native speakers talk in English (our target language). Hope to find another solution soon.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Hi Ilaria, thank you for watching and commenting on my video! I totally understand what you mean. Having an au pair can be intrusive on your privacy. I think that if you get an au pair, you could be very honest and say that after hours you prefer to spend time as a family. Maybe some au pairs might feel the same fears! I'm glad your daughter is able to spend time with native speakers and with the support from you speaking English (I'm not sure what your bilingual parenting strategy is or your proficiency level), that might be just what you need for maintaining the language. Two mornings a week is wonderful!

[@joelturnbull4038]

Wonderful - just wonderful! I can tell how excited you are here, and I’m really inspired. I’ll have to look into doing something similar, I think. When do you think would be an optimal time to try engaging an au pair? My son is 19 months old and starting to produce both English and German at really exciting levels (although his English is undoubtedly dominant). I’m not sure whether to go for it this year or wait until he’s a bit older and more developed (money being a factor).

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you for watching! I have considered this question very seriously. I'm especially concerned because right now, my youngest is just babbling and I worry a little about incomplete acquisition between three languages if I were to add in a third language right now. I think time the child will have with each language and age are important things to consider. I think I settled on the ideal time being once the minority language is established (if OPOL) as the language of communication with you and after they start creating more complex sentences. I think it worked really well around 2.5+ for us because my son is at the age where is is parroting EVERYTHING he hears! However, this is my experience and it's possible I might change my mind later on. I'd worry more about starting out early rather than too late in order to maximize what native speakers can really offer--grammar in action, sentences, and, with that, pronunciation. So much more than simple vocabulary, which we can certainly teach them (mostly haha) on our own. My two cents 🙂. Thanks for your thoughtful comment and congratulations on your son producing words in German! The other timeframe I would consider if German is well established as your go-to language is right around 4 before school starts because once he goes to school if it's in an English-speaking place, he may start preferring to speak English to the detriment of German. So goal #1 establish German as the language of communication and goal #2 is survive contact with the majority language (unless he's already in English language daycare, then ignore this!)

[@joelturnbull4038]

@@LiveYourLanguage Thanks - that’s really helpful advice.

[@dailyitalianwords-italianw3970]

This brought tears to my eyes. I’m so pleased for you! ❤️

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you so much for your continued support and your kind words! I know you know exactly how I feel 🙂. It was a big deal!

[@Peru-fc3bi]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am going to try to find a native speaker baby sitter. Maybe a university student looking for casual work.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you for watching my video and for leaving a comment 🙂. I love that idea too! It would be especially great if something like that could be arranged on an ongoing basis. I definitely plan to ask my school's study abroad office for some contacts if we don't go with a French-speaking au pair going forward. I hope that works well for you!

[@rocketrob7974]

Hi there, this is Robert from Germany. I was wondering how you arranged an au pair for two months “only”. I’m not into the au pair topic but I know a few people that were au pair but usually did it for an entire year, as the parents didn’t want regular changes.

[@anaf.8901]

If you could, would you have gotten an au pair earlier on? I would love to get one but I’m not sure when would be the best time in terms of my son making the most out of it. Thank you ❤

[@LiveYourLanguage]

What an excellent question! I think that age 2 is the absolute earliest I'd get an au pair if you are already supporting the language at home. Our help as non-native speakers can really take them farther than you'd think, depending on your proficiency. Ideally, I think I'd start at age 3 because they're already making pretty coherent sentences and can benefit more from the grammar support an au pair would provide (earlier on it might mostly be focused on isolated vocabulary, which is great, but not the best use of an au par, in my opinion). However, if you're getting an au pair for initial acquisition of a new language, I think starting earlier would be better (but probably not before 1 or 1.5). That is not a research-based opinion, just my impressions based on my experience. Thanks for watching!

[@anaf.8901]

@@LiveYourLanguage Thank you for your answer! Makes sense :)

[@mayra9834]

This is wonderful! So happy for y’all. If you would be able to, I’d be interested in a more detailed video about your experience with an au pair. Did they live in your home, did they have their own room, did you pay the au pair, what did a day look like with the au pair, any suggestions you have for those looking for an au pair. Etc

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Mayra, thanks for watching! Would that really interest you? I definitely have some ideas concerning how to encourage things from a linguistic perspective because there is still a lot to consider. Just because you have a native speaker in the house doesn't necessarily mean they'll be speaking all the time. There were ways I encouraged speaking and interacting with the kids, so I can definitely share those tips for sure 🙂.