Ambiguous impressions about the life and work of a nanny in the US

I really podnataskala language here: I have advanced as much as I could at home in 5 years. I am paid 560 dollars a month for my stay with children and work on the Au Pair program. Approximately two hundred of them go to all sorts of things, and I plan to go somewhere else for the rest after the year: under the terms of the program, the thirteenth month is given for traveling.

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In America, there is a law that children under 14 should not be left alone at home. The nanny costs 15 $ per hour, so it is much more profitable for the American family to pay for their studies and the maintenance of a foreign student, and it’s also very prestigious to have a student from another country in the house. Therefore, in fact, there are such programs "for the exchange of students."

When I arrived in the first family,
I was told: this is the first floor, this is the kitchen, your bedroom is there - that's all. It seems everything is simple, but ... Then everything is completely different! For example, I did not know how to use the toilet - one button that is not pressed, which you first need to turn. I twisted it, kicked, pushed this toilet bowl ... In general, I did not feel hospitality.

You're leaving Russia, the agency says it will help you in everything

And here you come - not a fig! You can only rely on yourself. You can't prove anything to the American office: you have a decent family, you have a car, you have a TV. What more do you need? You live not in the basement. In general, when you contact a company with problems, you cannot say that “the family is bad, they don’t give this, that, that ...”. You need to be discreet, say that you like America, everything is good and everything is wonderful, but here is the family - “such nice people, but they treat you somehow coldly”. The slightest note of discontent is regarded against you: "you do not respect our country, you are an inadequate person, go home."

If you go to live with your family, you need to ask where they live. There are large cities - there are offices, institutes, and people work there. When children appear, Americans move to live outside the city. This is very close: in 5 – 10 minutes from the city, sleeping areas begin, such as our Rublevka in Moscow.

Living there is quite environmentally friendly: around the lake, swans ... there are no plants nearby. But from there you can reach the city only by car, and in the most residential area there’s not a damn thing, not even a shop. I'm not talking about school, college, or just a place where you can go in the evening. Only the house.

And to go to the museum, to the store, or just to walk, you need a car. Mom and Dad left for work by car, and you have to sit at home all day, with children.

There is a question about using the machine - and here it begins. First, you need insurance. Secondly, be sure to drive well.

For a Russian person to drive means learning to sit at the wheel, Don't bump into anyone and make sure that no one bumps into you as much as possible.

For an American, it means to keep every sign in motion! Each! If the “stop” sign, then it is necessary to get to this sign, stop (and not slow down!), Look right, left, and only then get off. Even if the road is empty.

40 speed limit miles per hour. But when you go to the highway (by which you can get to the city from the sleeping area), the restrictions are in the other direction: here you have to accelerate to 120 km / h and enter the stream at this speed. Less is sure to be an accident.

This is crazy scary! When I first went there, my knees were shaking. Especially when it's near, at 120 speed (not kilometers, but miles per hour), a huge wagon with a trailer rushes, and you are sitting in your squat car and you cannot brake ... the first phrase that my father told me on the road was: “Everything OK, everything is fine, you just do not slow down. "

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The problem for Russians in America is parking.

With us, where you stand, there is parking. Where I managed to stand so as not to hit anyone, I parked there. There are huge two- and three-story stores here, the likes of which we don’t have in Novosibirsk. There is lined parking at the entrance. You need to stand clearly in the middle of the designated lane. I always park for about twenty to thirty minutes: I’ll drive in, drive out, drive in, drive out...
As a result, a problem arose with my first family: I was forbidden to take a car. This is assumed that the family may refuse to give the car for personal use, but at the same time it must provide a way to the institute and according to needs (to the pharmacy, to friends, and so on).

They said they would carry me. Month transported - tired.

I somehow caught a cold

At my request to take me to the pharmacy, they told me that at the end of the week they will go to the store and take me with them. I got sick on Monday. On Friday morning, friends took me to the hospital with pneumonia. I lay under droppers day.
I did not return from the hospital back, I started calling the agency. I was told that, they say, I did not realize what my driving abilities were and so on.

In general, it is necessary only to call the American family and simply say that the student herself is to blame for everything, without even explaining the reason - they will be surely believed. Student - no. I know that some of them take a passport from a student, they need to do any homework ... It’s useless to call an agency - the truth is only on the side of Americans.

There are, of course, good families. There are those where they perceive you as a daughter. They go somewhere to travel - they take with them. It does not depend on the agency. This is a lottery.

One more problem. The contract stipulates that ...

The menu is selected at the request of the student,

however, it happens, and it often happens that this is not respected. And no one controls these violations.
The fruits that I used to eat at home are scary, because here they are exactly the same as from plastic, and if you eat, you will not feel the taste, and you will not increase strength ...

Both in the first and in the second “my” family, dinner is prepared once a month. For them, this is almost a family holiday, when everyone gathers and cooks something. And “cooking” means getting meat out of the fridge and grilling it. Salads and side dishes they do not eat. The soup is even more so. They just don't know what it is.

For some time I drank a lot of milk, because it is like water in them, and for some reason I feel bad from their juices, as if there is one diluted ascorbic acid. I thought maybe milk was somehow safer to drink. And I drank large glasses of milk. After a while I feel: some tension in the family. Do not talk, sulk. And so they walked, walked, and one day the father could not stand it and said: “Do you all drink milk like that in Russia?”. “No,” I answered, “It’s just like water for you, I’ll drink it instead of water.” “It costs four dollars,” he said. “We buy this 1.5-liter bottle for three days, not two, as it happens with you when you drink it.”

In general, with regard to products, everything is skim. Plastic food. All Americans get up at five in the morning to run an hour before work. Those who lead a healthy lifestyle, eat lettuce, drink Diet Coke, sincerely hope that it is useful and that they lose weight from it. Children are mostly stuffed with chips, hot dogs, hamburgers. This is the standard. Well, for breakfast the holy of holies is flakes of the most different colors: from light green to ultraviolet. Can you imagine what they paint? In short, for a couple of months before my eyes borsch swims sporadically.

Those who are richer take their health very seriously and try to eat normally. But in their concept, what is normal is eating the same porridge, the same meat, only cooked on your own, or in a restaurant. Eating in a restaurant is not that expensive: for ten dollars you can eat so much that it won’t seem like much. But all the same: you open any pantry in an American family - and there are always boxes of chips, chocolates, dry food for unfortunate dogs.

Animals in the USA

A separate topic for conversation. They have very well developed programs for the protection of animals. The same Greenpeace. People are judged for hitting a dog or cat. But at the same time, if the cat lives in the house, it will surely pull out the claws so that it does not scratch anything. For me it was a shock. When a cat jumped on me and started to touch it with its paws, and the soft-soft legs ... She seemed to be trying to stick the claws, and there was nothing there. I am a family: "Oh, what a gentle cat you have." And they answer me: "Well, she is without nails." That is, those who start pets, first of all, put them to sleep, pull out their nails, castrate, remove the ovaries. And if the dog is also fluffy, they are shaved and then practically not released outside so that she doesn’t catch anything.

I feel very sorry for the animals, especially because they are fed this dry food. There is always a huge bucket of food and a scoop in the pantry. In her cup - once and again. And the poor dog is already eating everything from hunger.

Then you start to miss even the dust

in our mud. We have a life ... very colorful, life here is quite stable, but limited. If you do not receive a salary, then you receive help from the state in which you can live. Stability is ensured by all these framework-rules. These are two sides of the coin. On the one hand, well, when you go to the store, no one will push you, no one will wash you, as we can have.

In the store, all politely show. This is one side. And the other one is a cold personal attitude, money, money, money ... Before this trip, I never thought about what is more important - material well-being or mental ...

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