About our Family!
Warning! Prepare to read the word family over and over, we aspire to this! š https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQuc7wfO16Q. This page starts with details on our family, has our previous Au Pair recommendations midway, and has some family photos at the end. Please take a look and we hope to get to know you!
Hello! We are a fun-loving family based in Sunnyvale California that doesnāt take ourselves too seriously. Please read this to find out more about our family and donāt hesitate to contact us if you think we are a good fit for you. We put this together to answer most basic questions we see but feel free to ask us anything!
About Us: We have 2 children; a 3 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. Our son is a happy guy who loves snuggles and to play with truck and his bike. Our daughter likes hair and makeup, playing with friends, board games, and craft projects. Host dad is starting a construction company and loves all things automotive, the beach, and pizza. Host mom works at a tech company and loves traveling and trying new foods (except pizza, she is sick of pizza because of host dad). We joke around with each other and deal with problems constructively. We celebrate both American and Indian holidays and events as host dad was born in the USA and host mom spent most of her childhood in Canada. Our previous Au Pairs have all said we are easy to talk to and we want to have a genuine relationship. We are looking for an Au Pair that wants to become a member of the family. We hope this will be the start of a lifelong bond as we keep in touch with our previous Au Pairs and plan to visit them in the future.
Places we have traveled to: Within the USA of course, Canada, Mexico, Tahiti, Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Peru, Israel, Taiwan, China, Dubai, Egypt, Scotland, England, Turkey, Belize, Thailand, India, and Greece.
Where we live: We are located near San Francisco California and are nearby to many travel hotspots such as Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz Beach, Monterey, Redwood Forest, Yosemite, and Big Sur to name a few. There are a ton of hidden gems that you can get to know. Los Angeles is a 6-hour drive and there are many fantastic stops along the Pacific Coast Highway as well. There are many outdoor activities here and there are great nature trails next to our house. The weather here is pleasant year-round, and we donāt have crazy traffic like Los Angeles. Santa Cruz is popular for surfing and if you enjoy winter sports, Lake Tahoe is famous for its ski slopes. There are also literally hundreds of Au Pairs here, so it is easy to make friends with familiar and different backgrounds as well. An LCC told us about 80% of AuPairs in California are in Northern California where we live and there are over 400 in this area. Our town was rated happiest city in America recently. There are also many other AuPairs in the area to make friends with. Please see the bottom for photos of some of the local attractions.
Our Previous Au Pairs: We love them! What can we say? Our current Au Pair is from Italy and is an older sibling to our children. In the past we have been fortunate to host amazing AuPairs. We have had two from Argentina, one from France, and one from Italy. We spent weekends at the beach, watching movies, hanging out, and taking vacation trips. One even attended an Indian wedding with us and wore traditional Indian clothes. If there was an issue, we resolved it together. Along the way we learned about each otherās cultures and had a great time (Empanadas and Fernet, Raclette Cheese, and making homemade pasta sauce). We plan to visit them soon. If we are close to matching, they are all happy to speak with you. However, we ask to do this only if you are interested in matching with our family as we want to respect their time.
Who we think would fit best in our family: We are looking for an AuPair that is active, trustworthy, and wants to have a genuine relationship with our family. While there might be hard days, it is super important we find someone who enjoys being with the children. This means engaging and knowing them vs just keeping them safe. If this describes you, we are sure you will have a wonderful time with us! We donāt want a live in worker. Our previous Au Pairs made lifelong friends here, travelled, explored the local sights, and also spent quality time with us. We were nominated for Host Family of the year, and we believe this is because how we get to know our Au Pairs and how much we care for them. We want you to explore, grow, and follow your dreamsā¦and if you want, we can help you along the way! We helped our first Au Pair take classes at Stanford which is a world-famous university and only 20 mins away from our house.
Possible Deal Breakers: We are quite experienced host family so we have a pretty good idea. First of all, we are vegetarian and donāt require you to be vegetarian, but we find our family fits best with someone flexible around this. All our previous Au Pairs were not vegetarian, and it worked out fine. However, if you need to eat meat all the time it will probably not be a good fit as it will be a difficult adjustment. We love to eat pizza, plant-based burgers, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Italian, salads, and we would love to try your foods too. In addition, we have cameras in our kidsā room and play area. It helps us check in on the kids when we are out of the house. They are in plain view, and we are upfront about them. We also visit family often or they come visit us. Our Au Pair needs to be comfortable with grandparents, brothers, and sisters visiting. One of our previous Au Pairās family visited us and we got to know them which was awesome. We hope to get to know your family too! We sometimes travel to Los Angeles, Chicago, or Toronto so we need someone willing to travel a few times a year outside of vacations. While we canāt promise it, we often donāt need as much childcare help when visiting family and we usually set aside extra fun time so you can explore the cities. Host dadās brother in LA also has an Au Pair so you might like hanging out together when we visit.
The Arrangements: Our house is a cozy house in a very nice location. There are many things to do and hang out nearby. There are a few parks close by and it is great for outdoor activities like running, biking, swimming, and hiking. Almost any activity you can think of is available here so feel free to ask us if youāre into something specific. You will of course have your own room. We want you to be comfortable, it has a queen bed, a desk, a dresser, and a computer. If you want something else in it let us know, usually we can accommodate it as we want you to be comfortable. There are two bathrooms in the house, one is in our bedroom and the other in the hallway. When guests are not over you will have the bathroom to yourself. When guest are over, they may also use it but in general the kids and ourselves use the bathroom in our room and not yours. We will share one of our cars with you so you can get around. We have enough cars that this is not an issue. We ask that you cover the fuel that you use for personal activities as we donāt know what trips you will be taking. We cover the other expenses like insurance, maintenance, and the fuel if it is used for Au Pair duties or helping the family. In general, if you are a genuine family member we will do whatever we can to make this the best experience possible for you. If you have some requests or something above does not work for you, please ask when we interview. The only thing we request is that we talk about the big things you need before matching so there are not any misunderstandings when you arrive.
The Schedule: We need help Monday through Friday. Our daughter goes to school between 8:30am-3:00pm except Tuesday is 8:30am-2:00pm. You will be spending time with her when she finishes school until about 5-6pm. Our son goes to school from 2 until 5-6pm. You will be spending time with him from about 9am to 2pm. However this schedule is subject to change based on how the kids are doing and what classes they have.
If you made it this far and are interested, feel free to connect with us. You can reach out at aolcarman18@yahoo.com or WhatsApp at 22four430sevenone90.
Previous AuPair Recommendations/Notes:
āāI had the chance to be an au pair for this amazing family in California. Purva and Sundeep are respectful, kind, and riase their children with care and great values. They always respected my schedule. I had all my weekends and even more vacation time than in the contract, including a drip to Chicago with them. Annika is a sweet, energetic, and creative little girl who will quickly become your best friend. Kiaan is an adorable and smart boy who loves animals and cars and heāll love learning your language!ā ā Olivia from France
āThank you so much for everything you have done for me this year. I will forever be grateful for your generosity and love. You have always treated me as part of your family, and I feel deeply connected to you now. I wish for all the Au pairs out there to have a family like yours.ā
āHello au pairs!
My host family supported me from day one and makes me feel like Iām part of their family. They are so loving, caring, transparent, and kind. Thereās no words to explain how great this family is. They have two adorable kids who stole my heart. Annika is like my little sister, she is a very cheerful, kind and is super friendly, Iām sure that you will enjoy playing with her. And about Kiaan what can I say? Heās the most cute baby, heās always smiling and doing funny faces. They shared their Indian and American traditions with me and they allowed me to share my culture with them.
They are always on the look out of how Iām feeling, what are my needs or concerns, If I need help with anything, theyāre willing to help me.
They see me as a member of their family and include me in every activity (Trips, bike ride, ice kiting, going to the beach, family dinners, movie nights).
They are a very fun family, we are always making jokes together, we can laugh at each other, we can talk about everything. The relationship I have with them is awesome and Iām sure they will include you as they did with me.
I hope they can find an incredible au pair and Iām sure youāre gonna enjoy it with them.ā
- Melisa from Argentina
āHello, I Ģm Gabriela from Argentina and I want to share my experience as an Au Pair in USA, spending a year with the Raniwala Family.
I had the opportunity to care for Anika, who is a beautiful, intelligent and sweet little girl. We shared many moments together, outings, events, days at the park, swimming lessons, breakfasts and lunches.
They are a very calm family that resolves everything through peaceful communication. Even after several years, we still keep in touch through video calls and I hope they can come to visit me soon.
It has been an incredible experience, and if you are an Au Pair, I wholeheartedly recommend choosing this family.ā
Gabriela from Argentina
Photos (used with permission from our previous AuPairs)