My Host Parents Took Away My Freedom and My Food

baby I have exciting news I texted my boyfriend I got the job he wrote back yay I read it and put the phone up to my heart inside I met my boyfriend online through a videogame and I've already visited him once in gottenberg Sweden for three months and hell it was love like you've seen the movies we're crazy about each other the three months we spent together was the most magical I've ever felt and when I had to come back home to Orlando Florida I was just devastated but immediately after I got back I applied for a visa to go live with him but the wait time was like two years I thought how was I gonna survive until then I cried almost every night wanting to be closer to him so I searched and searched for ways we could be closer until the visa will be approved one day I read about how people sometimes I'll pair in different countries and was intrigued so I looked it up turns out being an au pair is like a cultural exchange where the al pair would work as a nanny for a family in another country and maybe also do some housework in exchange for our room food and a little bit of money so I did some more research and started looking for families I was searching for about a month until I finally found the perfect place they seemed like a nice family they had a nice house their kids look like they were a lot of fun they lived pretty close to the city but the most important fact was that they lived just three hours away from my boyfriend when they accepted me I was more than ecstatic I was boarding the plane to Denmark grinning from one ear to the other it was so great because they offered to pay for my flight to Europe they will provide me with a phone when I get there and I would only be doing just a little housework because they already had a cleaning lady it seemed too good to be true I mean I would make money see Europe and my boyfriend and have fun in the process of taking care of their children basically I would be like a member of the family which is perfect considering the fact that I'm moving there completely on my own and it was a great start to moving to a whole new continent when I arrived I expected a warm welcome from the family but instead I found no one I wandered around the arrival area for about 15 minutes before I saw a man running towards me that looked like a father when he saw me he said hi welcome okay let's go and then waved his hand for me to follow him I grabbed my suitcase and I had to run after him to the car when we got home he opened the door for me and said okay here's the house and there's a room I have to go back to work just stay here my wife and children should be home in a few hours and then he left I already felt really weird and uncomfortable but I tried to think that maybe it was just a busy day the host mother and children came home a few hours later they seemed very nice I gave them some gifts I bought for them and they seemed to really enjoy it a week went by smoothly I only did a little bit of housework and spent most of my time looking after the kids then one day they fired the cleaning lady and I thought they would just hire a new one little did I know they expected me to pick up the work I woke up one morning and the host mom had left me a note on the table telling me everything I had to do I pretty much had to clean the whole house I even had to clean the parents private toilet which had pee all over it it was so filthy after that I had to clean the whole house every day one day I was sitting on the ground with the kids after dinner as they were playing they were playing on their own so I didn't feel like there was anything to worry about I looked away for a second and one of the siblings hid the other one who then started crying the dad got up from his chair and towered over me yelling were you not watching them what is the matter with you this is your fault you have to watch them all the time that's your job I just nodded and put my head down trying not to cry and this was only the beginning after that it was like I was in hell I had to clean the entire house every day watch the kids and do everything they told me the only time I ever felt any kind of relief was when they'd finally let me go to my room but one day they took that away too they told me that I had to leave the bedroom door open even in the evening when I wasn't on the clock anymore because the little boy liked to go in my room a lot he always begged to play on my computer he even walked in on me changing once so the mom wanted me to leave the door open so he can come and hang out with me whenever he wanted I said okay but I felt like they had stripped me of the only privacy I had and took away from me the only place I could feel safe one night I was doing the dishes a family friend stopped by to pick up the children a few moments later the host parents came up behind me and cornered me We Need to Talk go and sit down there the host mother said to me with her glaring eyes terrified I washed the soap off my hands quickly and went over to sit where she pointed the host dad then holds up his phone to my face and on the screen was a picture of the youngest child's crayons that she left in my room when we were coloring together there we've caught you red-handed you think you can steal from us without us knowing no please Arnaud I tried to defend myself we don't believe you the host father said and then crossed his arms we could pick you out you know you should be so lucky we could even take you to the police no please she left it in my room because we were coloring in there together I pleaded we have the evidence right here why would we keep you after knowing that you are stealing from us the host father scolded I swear she left it in my room because we were coloring in there together please don't kick me out I begged I was so afraid what was I going to do if they kick me out I was in a country I didn't know a whole ocean away from where my family were the host father and mother stared at me in silence for a few minutes that felt like an eternity we will think about it and give you an answer tomorrow after that I grabbed my phone and ran outside as far as I could to call my boyfriend I cried and cried so hard I had to stop telling him what happened because he couldn't understand what I was saying he wanted to come over and confront them but I was too scared and I don't like confrontation so I just begged him not to telling him it could make things worse the next morning when I came out they were already sitting there drinking their coffee the host father looked at me and said we decided that you can stay but don't think that I won't kick you out in a heartbeat if I catch you messing up or not watching the kids enough I nodded and went to make breakfast for myself with tears welling up in my eyes I wasn't relieved they let me stay in fact I felt worse than before but to me it was better than being kicked out I spent the next two months barely getting any sleep I had nightmares of being kicked out to the streets again and again I felt so trapped and I had no place to be that I could feel safe I was exhausted depressed hungry and alone I hated being around the family that treated me so badly by making me work over the limit I felt like I was on the clock from the time I woke up until I went to sleep I still had to leave my bedroom door open and at one point they even stopped buying me food so the only time I ate was in the evening with them every day I just put on a fake smile until I couldn't take it anymore after being mistreated and feeling down and depressed for four months I finally got the best news I could ever hope for my visa came through I realized in that moment that I no longer had to take all this anymore so I walked up to the host father and told him that I was going to leave that weekend he was furious and started to yell at me things like how could I I have no right to just walk out on them I'm ungrateful etc I walked away and went to play with the kids the next day the host mom wouldn't even look at me but when the weekend came I packed my stuff and just as I was about to leave the host dad approached me and said you can't just leave you owe us we took care of you so you had to pay us a hundred dollars or else I will go to the police I couldn't believe it he was trying to get money from me but I didn't want to argue with him anymore I just wanted to get out of there so I gave him the money and left I went straight to my boyfriend's who is now my husband and moved in with him I was free I felt like I was no longer under anyone's power and wasn't constantly scared I was doing the wrong thing looking back now I should have listened to my gut in the beginning and stood up for myself instead of letting them walk all over me they only threatened me to weaken me into doing whatever they wanted to this day I always hear about our pears being mistreated and when you are in a strange family's house far away from your real family it's easy to let these people just mistreat you to avoid being kicked out I don't regret my decision to be on a pair because it made me realize that art was my passion and I learned that sometimes you need to confront people if they are doing something you know isn't right or fair if I would have told the host family straight up that this isn't what we agreed on then maybe my time there would have been better I now use that realization in my life and I confront the problems in my way I hope that my story doesn't scare anyone away from being an au pair because I think being an au pair is great and that it is an amazing experience but if you want to do it you should pick your family very carefully and make sure the family knows what you want and make sure you know what the family wants from you communication I think is the biggest tool you need to have a great experience as an au pair [Music] you

Channel: MinuteVideos

Views: 1,673,566

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Id: kmzLeXXdiVU

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019