Being an au pair sounds like an incredibly stressful job. You have to leave the country that you know and love to live with a random family and care for their children full-time. It sounds like being a foreign exchange student without being treated like a cool, fun novelty amongst your peers in this country. 

While the au pair life might not be for me, it can be a great opportunity for young people looking for employment and housing in a foreign country. It covers both of those needs, and food! What more could a 20-something need? Sometimes, this seemingly golden opportunity comes at the cost of their privacy, which can have consequences for their employment. One 20-year-old Canadian au pair learned that firsthand when the British family she was working with fired her after going through her things and discovering she was taking depression and anxiety medication. They even said she was unfit for au pair work at all.