About us

Thank you for visiting our blog. It contains the same info as our profile at au pair world, but with more and higher quality pictures. We are premium users of au pair world, so please contact us through the web site. 

We are a young couple (or so we like to think) with a three year old toddler, Manuel, a 19 month old baby (as of March 2014), Eduardo, and a seven year old Spanish water dog. We want our sons to be raised in the Deutsche Schule in Madrid and in order to do so both of them should speak German by the age of four. Manuel and Eduardo spend Monday to Friday most of their time in a deutsche kindergarten. But in addition to this we appreciate to have the help a German speaking girl.

My wife and I also appreciate the extra "freedom" that having some help from an au pair provides. And we all love the culture sharing experiences that come with living with an au pair.  

Let me present our family with some detail. My name is Carlos and I work for a company that helps other companies establish themselves abroad. I speak English, Italian and some German. My wife Carmen works for the City of Madrid’s Town hall. She speaks English and is taking German lessons (me too). At three years old Manuel is starting to become a little person and to develop his own personality but has no experience in doing so. So he needs to discover what the limits are and it is our duty as parents to help him in that process and to show him that getting to know himself and the life around him can be a great thing. Our au-pair needs to acknowledge this and help us in that process too. That being said, Manuel is a fantastic little fellow, calm, bright and helpful. Handling Eduardo is easier emotionaly but on the other hand Edu is a moving danger! He is really into exploring and we need to keep a constant eye on him. He loves hugging and loves to be kissed. Both our kids follow their routines well so, although our home is sometimes a mad-house, daily life is well organized and predictable. We think that is fundamental to keep us "sane".

The whole family_October 2012

Eduardo in Nerja_August 2013

The playing room at home_Summer 2013

In dangerous hands_October 2013

The whole family in Tarifa_June 2013

Manuel in our garden_Summer 2013

 Manuel in Langre_August 2013

Carmen and Manuel in the woods_August 2013

 The kids and Sofie our last year's beautiful au pair

 Barcelona Garmin Triathlon finishers!!_October 2013

 Eduardo's unexpected success among chinese teenagers_May 2013

Manuel in Brussel's Grand Place_May 2013

Both Carmen and I are enthusiastic people who love to be involved in new things. Although we run a very tight schedule at the moment, we do our best to maintain our hobbies, which include doing sports, traveling, reading or just relaxing and watching a movie after a hard day’s work. We also enjoy cooking and do so often as a family activity. In any case, our favourite activity is to spend time toghether and hang out with our kids.  

About our routines: we wake up at 6:30 am to start with our daily activity and we leave the house before 7:30. Carmen takes Manuel and Eduardo to kindergarten before going to work and picks them up after that. She and the kids get home at around 5:30 pm. When the weather is fine, the afternoon is spent outdoors, most days in our own garden, where Manuel and Eduardo can play with other kids. I usually get home at around 6:30 pm. At 7:30 pm we start the bath and dinner routine. We cook dinner for the whole family and we all have dinner toghether in the living room. After dinner Manuel goes to sleep and Carmen reads a short story to him. Manuel loves this (and so does Carmen). We then relax for a while in front of the TV. We may watch a movie or, more often, some series. We go to bed at around 11:30. Into all this we have to squeeze walking the dog, once in the morning and once in the evening.

Weekend activity depends on the weather, but in Madrid is usually fine enough to do some outdoor activity that may include a simple walk in the city, through the Retiro or looking for new hotspots in Malasaña (one of our favorite neighborhoods). We sometimes do day trips. And every once in a while whole weekend trips.

We live in a nice condominium, with a large garden (with swimmingpool) full of other kids, in a residential neighborhood called Puerta de Hierro inside Madrid’s metropolitan area. It is a convenient location, since it is close enough to the city’s downtown but quiet enough for a relaxed living in such a bustling city as Madrid. There’s a bus stop right outside our house and several other bus stops nearby and, what’s best, there’s a bus that runs all night long from the city’s downtown (Cibeles) right to our house. So you may enjoy at full one of Madrid's best attractions: its nightlife. There’s also a subway station at a 10 to 15 minute walk.

Our flat is bright and simply decorated. Decoration itself is an ongoing process since we have been living here for only three years.

(Our garden in summer)

(Our living room_last Christmas)

(Vespa fans)

(Dinning table)

(The way we like things at home)

(We enjoy jazz very much)

(Our small tangerine tree in our terrace)

In short, we provide a healthy, easygoing and fun environment for our au pairs who are in an excellent position to enjoy both our family and the city of Madrid.

What do we expect from our au pair?

The main thing is that Manuel and Eduardo hear and get to practice some German outside kindergarten. So we expect our au-pair to build a relationship with both (especially with Manuel since Eduardo still accepts things as they come). From our experience with previous au-pairs this comes naturally if you are an enthusiastic, creative and happy person who enjoys being around kids. More precisely Monday, Wednesday and Thursday our au pair should spend the afternoon (from 5:30 pm on) around the kids and help us through the bath and dinner routine, lead the dinning room and kitchen cleaning after dinner and prepare things for the next morning (kids clothes, backpacks and that sort of things). On Tuesdays the kids spend all afternoon with their grandparents and they come home already bathed and dined. On Friday the kids go to the swimming pool and come home already bathed. Our au-pair should also be ready to "baby-sit" one weekend night so that Carmen and I can go out to dinner, take a simple stroll around the city or to have a couple of beers with friends. On such days our previous au pairs normaly invite some friend over and cook and watch a movie or something of the sort.

With regards housework a lady comes four days a week to help us with the "hard" cleaning and laundry so we do not need help with that. This lady does not come on Tuesdays nor weekends. On Tuesdays we ask our au pair to do some tidying around the house (that tidying should not take more than 30 minutes) and although we consider that weekends are free time we still demand a helping attitude around the house. Our au pair should also clean after herself, be respectful around the house and keep her room perfectly tidy.

In short we expect our au pair to simply step into our life and become a member of the family giving a regular helping hand like any of us do. There's also something very important we expect from our au-pair: a great attitude! That means interest in learning, improving and becoming a better au pair and a better person every day. We do that ourselves and expect that from Manuel and Eduardo too.

In exchange for that we offer the best possible treatment, all our love and the chance to share our life. As I've said we are enthusiastic people always involved in things. Our au pair may join in as often as she wishes. We also provide our au-pairs with their own room (around 8sq meters) and bathroom. The room has a large window that faces a courtyard. There are no views but it is a bright bedroom nevertheless because we live in the last floor.

We hope you find our offer appealing!