Hello.
I’ve been an au pair in Spain for about 5 months now. There are 3 kids. I make 70 euro a week. Before coming I was told it would be 100 and more for wknds but it’s always 70 and no more no matter what. I feel like a part of the family and they take me with them everywhere and show me some cool things. My normal schedule is get the kids at 2, eat lunch with them take them to activities and the park and do random other activities with them until about 9 pm. Some Fridays they will say they have a lunch and go straight from work not coming home until about 2 or 3 in the morning. They have asked me to work overnights and many many wknds which I have done. They will randomly ask me to work week nights when they have things pop up with friends or appts or whatever. I’m just starting to feel like I work a lot but wondering if I shouldn’t be complaining because they also take me to cool places like skiing, Féria, and semana Santa. I was asked last second to work last Friday night and I said I had a dinner with my friends but it’s no problem to change my plans. The mom said it’s fine and Apparently was upset about this? They have a full time chef/cleaning lady who comes Monday through Friday that told me the mom was upset.
On top of this the kids are extremely difficult and don’t listen to me at all. I love them a lot but they’re not easy at all and frequently get in trouble at school.
Overall some days I feel really lucky, but more so taken advantage of and burnt out? I’m just not sure if this is fair and I’m complaining too much or if it’s not right. The weekends (overnights sometimes) and the last second asks with an expectation of saying yes all the time are what bother me the most, but maybe this is normal for an au pair.