An au pair is someone who lives with a host family abroad and provides child care as part of the arrangement. While the experience can vary from family to family, TikTok user @briellehardman shared what she says was a difficult experience working as an au pair in Spain.
Brielle, who goes by Brielle on TikTok, shared the story in a video that has received 5.4 million views and more than 1,000 comments.
@briellehardman Grwm while I tell you about my experience as an au pair auaupairyfyprgrwmrtrendingegetreadywithmergrwmroutineegetreadywithmemakeuptstorytimeu#aupairhorrorstories
♬ original sound - Brielle?
She begins by explaining that the experience happened during her first time working as an au pair. “I had been searching for months and I finally came across this perfect family. There were two daughters. One was nine and one was eight. Basically, I had a phone call with them and they were perfect. So we ended up signing the contract. So I started at the beginning of June,” she says.
It was also Brielle’s first time traveling to Europe. Her brother was in Italy at the time, so she met up with him for a week before traveling to Spain.
When she arrived, Brielle says she met the father and immediately liked him. She also discovered that they had mutual friends, which she described as a strange coincidence.
She then met the two girls and says everything initially appeared to be going well. She moved into the family's home and began working as their au pair. However, she says things soon became more difficult.
“One of the daughters moved in with her sister so they were sharing a room and I took [the older] daughter's room. So obviously she's not used to that and she had been living in her own room this whole time and now has to get up and move her stuff for me. And I think that is where our first issue started,” she recalls.
According to Brielle, the first week went well as she and the girls got to know each other. She says au pairs have their own time on weekends, and she spent some of that time going out and making plans of her own.
Brielle recalls coming home around 3 a.m. one morning and says the parents were fine with it.
Later, while she was on the phone with her mother planning a trip, Brielle says one of the girls repeatedly came into the room and interrupted her despite being asked to stop.
Brielle emphasizes that it was the weekend and says she was not working at the time. She also says she was earning relatively little money for the arrangement.
The situation became more tense when Brielle says the girl accused her of stealing her water bottle. Brielle says she had a receipt showing that she had purchased the bottle herself.
Brielle also says the family was not fluent in English, which made communicating during the disagreement more difficult.
“Mind you they are not fluent in English at all so us translating had to do a lot with translating on the phone and just trying to figure out things with our hands,” she recalls.
According to Brielle, the disagreement continued for several hours as the girl continued trying to spend time with her. “I get mad and I'm like, okay, can you please leave. I'm being very polite, mind you she's still accusing me of things and I'm just getting really annoyed,” she says. Eventually, Brielle says she told the girl to leave.
“So finally, I should have never done this, but I was just like, ‘Out,’” she recalls, adding that she pointed toward the door.
Brielle says the girl responded by telling her that if she could not spend time with her, she would tell her father that Brielle could not have dinner with the family.
Users in the comments sided with Brielle
In the TikTok's comments, several viewers expressed sympathy for Brielle and said they would have found the situation difficult as well.
“I feel like Au Pairs are expected to do so much outside of working hours and it’s SO stressful living with another family like omg,” one user wrote.
Another commenter reacted to Brielle's claim that she was paid $75 a week, writing, “$75 a week?! Hell nah I would’ve quit right there the moment that man yelled. How much did they think they were paying you? That is WILD.”
Not everyone shared the same experience, however. One commenter who said they were currently working as an au pair in France wrote, “this makes me so sad bc i’m an au pair with my family in france right now and i love them.”
Brielle says the conflict surrounding the water bottle was only the beginning of what became a difficult experience with the family. She claims that the father later yelled at her, which she felt contributed to further problems with the girls.
Every au pair and host-family arrangement is different, and Brielle's experience reflects her own account of what happened during her time working in Spain.
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the events described in the video, which are based solely on @briellehardman’s account of her experience as an au pair in Spain.
