What an Au Pair has taught me about “This American Life.”

About a month ago, we had a newcomer join our household. Her name is “Amy” and she is 19 years old. She is from what I envision as a picturesque place in Western Germany about an hour south of Dusseldorf. A place where your uncle lives next door and you can ride your bike to Grandma’s house (true story). She is an Au Pair and will be living with us for a full year.

Au Pair is a French term meaning “at par” or “equal to.” Compared to a nanny or caretaker, an Au Pair is intended to be an equal member of the family. Sort of a niece from abroad coming to live (and assist) our family for a year.

Before I start, our background is the following: we live about 3 miles from Downtown Dallas so we’re really in the middle of a large city. We have a single family house in an eclectic, in-town neighborhood (some call it gayborhood) with a lower income, mostly Hispanic neighborhood on one side and a highly affluent, mostly White neighborhood on the other. We have 2 toddlers + 1 newborn under 5 years old and both my wife and I work (out of the house) full-time. So we’ve really thrown Amy into the “urban-America, dual working parent, with multiple needy kids” experience!

One thing I didn’t anticipate was how worried and parental we’d be with having a 19 year old living with us. We armed her with pepper spray, a…