A day in the life as an AuPair in Spain

I get a lot of messages saying how lucky I am to be in Madrid for so long and having the opportunity to travel around; which isn’t wrong, I am very grateful for this opportunity but I don’t ever post on snapchat or instagram about the not so fabulous parts of my journey. In this post I will update you on what an average day of my life looks like Mon-Fri. 

I am normally woken up around 7:45 by laughter, cries, and screams when the rest of the house gets their day started. I roll out of bed, do some morning stretches and hold my bladder until the little ones are done using the shared bathroom. I get some breakfast and head out the door by 8:45 for my 9 am Spanish class. I love my Spanish class, I get to see all of my AuPair friends and improve my Spanish for about two hours. Afterwards I have about four hours to do whatever the heck I want so I have to choose wisely. Most days I go to the gym, then go home or to a coffee shop and do homework and write some letters. Around 2:30pm is when the host parents and I eat a big lunch, I really like this part of the day because I can practice my Spanish with them and get to know them better. Then its time for siesta, but since naps normally just make me more tired, I watch an episode of Modern Family on Netflix since my Spanish series ended. But its not uncommon for me to go to Cien Mandaditos (a Spanish fast food place with cheap tapas) with some friends or to the city center. I normally have to decide what I do fairly quickly because it takes me 30 minutes to an hour to get somewhere one way by metro.

Everyday at 4 o’clock the mom and I go to the school to pick up the kids. Their school is very different from the elementary school I went to growing up. There are a ton of students! There are also about two adults to pick up their students so it is very crowded. We meet the 7 year old outside, give him his sandwich, walk to the class of the 5 year old,  then pick up the 3 year old from his class and give them both their sandwiches. Then we walk to the car which for some reason is normally a struggle. I feel like a herder trying to keep the three of them together at the same pace and on the same sidewalk. Once we get home I give them each a little homework to do for about half an hour, they eat a snack, then we change to go outside and play. Outside, I try and be creative and come up with a game all three of them would like to play together; the biggest hits have been dodgeball, wallball, hide and seek, and simon says. But most times than not I end up playing soccer with the boys then dolls or house with the girl. After an hour or two we go back inside and do more homework. I strictly only speak English with them so sometimes them simply having an intense conversation with me is homework enough.

Once done with homework I give the two little ones a bath which is either the easiest part of the day or the hardest part of the day, I don’t get it. Once they have their pj’s on, the four of us sit down to have dinner together that the mom prepared. I like this part of the day because it gives them a chance to laugh and talk to me in English without it feeling like homework. After dinner they get a dessert if they were good and watch cartoons in English, during this time I normally clean up after them from dinner and ask them questions about what’s happening in the TV show. They go to bed around 8:30 pm / 9:00 pm which is when I am done working. This is normally the perfect time to go on a relaxing walk and call my boyfriend. The time difference was hard to work with at first but we figured out that right when I get off work is normally when he is on his lunch break!

When I come home I sometimes chill with the parents or just get ready for the next day and hit the hay. It’s a good life. 

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