Bianca began her Au Pair experience with the Hall family in January 2009. In the year that she has been with the family, she has surpassed all expectations – not only providing quality
childcare, but also flawlessly integrating in the Host Family. To thank and honor Bianca for all of her work and her extraordinary personality, the Hall family nominated her for the IAPA Au Pair of the Year Award. Their nomination letter, which truly shows what makes Bianca an exemplary Au Pair is below:
“Our family isn’t special. Other than having three boys and one girl, we’re pretty normal. We’re a typical American family living in suburbia. There’s never a dull moment in our house. Even with our dogs and cats. What is rather special is this tall, long blonde (right now?any moment it could change) haired woman with more piercings than fingers that scurries in and out of the house with behaving children in tow. That woman is our au pair, Bianca, and she is quite possibly the best thing to have ever happened to our family.
Bianca comes from a family where she’s an only child. We thought for sure she would turn us down for an interview, as did a few previous au pairs, because of the number of children we have. Not only did she agree to have an interview with us, but she wasn’t put off by the number of kids she would have to watch every day. See, we knew she was something special when we saw her picture on CHI Au Pair’s website. We saw the look in the eyes of the child in the picture with Bianca and that child was genuinely happy. Eyes never lie. Bianca’s eyes glimmered and the little boy’s eyes beamed. When we talked to her on the phone the first time, we were all a little nervous, but we all felt an instant connection. We never expected Bianca to “pick up” on our banter, our sarcasm, and certainly didn’t expect her to dish it back out to us, but she did. And we were smitten. It was love at first sight, but we hadn’t “seen” her yet?just talked. When we followed up with her later that weekend and she told us she’d like to come to our family, we didn’t know whether to admit her to a hospital or throw a party! When Bianca arrived in our home, she threw herself immediately into being part of the family. She took control of the household and put us in line. Kathryn, our youngest and only girl, was a screamer. If she wasn’t in my or her daddy’s arms, she screamed. Dogs could howl with her screams. And then Bianca took her. Kathryn cried a bit, but she stopped. She grew so accustomed to Bianca that Bianca’s arms and hips were added to the list of acceptable people to hold her within a few short days. Not only that, but she developed a napping / eating schedule for the baby that even I as her mother couldn’t figure out.
Bianca quickly established a work / school routine for her and the kids and pretty soon our kids were actually finishing their homework! As two working parents with four children ages 8 and under, it was difficult enough to make sure all kids schoolwork was completed, papers signed, shuttling to after-school activities, and keeping our sanity in check. Bianca turned our lives upside down with her schedules and assertiveness. The boys’ homework was completed and ready for us to check when we got home. School papers to be signed were lined up on the counter according to child. She dropped the kids off and picked them from the activities that were immediately after-school so that we could accomplish a full day at work. She would get dinner prepped for the entire family so that when we got home from work we just had to cook it. She opened up so many hours in the evening for us to be able to spend time with our kids. That time is so precious to us and without Bianca we would have no idea who needed what and when.
Bianca is very mature for her age and we have never experienced a time with her when we didn’t trust her. She is respectful of us and we are of her. She respects our children and they look up to her. If you ask our boys what they like most about Bianca they have a resounding answer of, “we have fun with her!” Next in line is that “she takes care of me” and “she does homework with me.” As a parent it’s the most comforting feeling knowing that your child is with someone you trust completely with their wellbeing. We took a chance on a young woman from another country and she took a chance on us. No one knew that the stars aligned with this match and that a new family member was created. We know that we are not a special family, but Bianca is everything to us and this nomination is the least we can do to make sure people out there realize that we received the most special au pair in the world.”
