The Dogs Days are over
Autor: Danielle Castro | Publicado: 2011-07-08T07:12:00-07:00

Oh God! Finally the Dogs days are over.Since I got in Massachussetts its been like hell.Everything was so different from what I experienced in North Carolina, and I think this also made things harder on me, 'cause I couldn't stop comparing the houses, the way that the families behaved, the peacefulness that I had in NC and all the fights and screaming and yelling that I watched constantly in Marblehead.* To start, I have never had a schedule, It was awful do not knowing when I had to start working and when I was going to be off... So, even though my host mom was home from work already and I've had worked my 10 mandatory hours (the maximum hours per day) I was still working... Sometimes it was because she had to run some errands, or simply because she couldn't stand spend some time with her own daughters.* There was days when she would called me from work to say that she would get a extra shift wich means I had no choice to work the whole day too but with the difference that I wasn't being paid for that. So in those days I worked pretty much from 5:40 in the morning untill 12:00 am of the next day.* There was weeks wich I completed 80 hours of work but never earned one dime more for those 35 extra hours.* She sooo thought she was fooling me; It was so typical of her to knock in my door to ask "favors" (work for free) . What she didn't understand is that if I was in my room in my time off it was because I was too tired to go out and not because I didn't have anything else to do. So she never missed one single opportunity. Everytime I was there she would knocked in my door asking me to watch the girls saying: " The girls are fine, you can stay here in your room and just go and supervise them in a while, It doenst make sense for me to bring them since you are here"... And then the "hell" would start, either the girls would come to my room and mess everything around, or they would put fire on the house, they could never play together because it always resulted in fights. Meghan used to kick her sister in such a strong way that I feared that some day i would have to bring Colleen to the hospital. Meghan have never listened to me, she asked me to shut up all the time, she taught me bad words and said I was dumb for not knowing them.I was getting tired of that, because I started to feel that I couldn't stay home anymore and also that I had to run away everytime I was off. Sometimes Kathleen (my host mom), would takes hours to come back home when asking those "favors".At some point I became some sort of maid. I wasn't just doing the kid's laundry anymore, I was doing hers too. One day after dinner she got really mad at me, for have just cleaned up after myself and the kids. She said it was unacceptable and every time that she'd cook dinner I would have to clean everything up and that she would do the same if I were the one cooking dinner. But that definitely didn't happended. In the days I cooked for the girls because she wasnt home at dinner time and the girls were hungry AAAND I didn't even know I was suppose to cook, my host mom not only did not clean up after the girls but also cooked her own food and left all the pans and dishes in the sink for me in the next morning. She wasn't cleaning up herself anymore.* Now The Dogs: Kathlleen told me that was the girls job feed them and let them out. But Meghan seems to have her hands tied when it comes to take care of them, she never did. I have to feed them and make sure that there were always water in their bowl and let them out at every hour because Toby was sick and also had to wipe his pees around the house all day long due too his sickness.... Too much.After one week living there wasn't hard to figure why the last au pair left. The girls are too naughty, misbehaved and nasty! No wonder they became kids so hard to deal with. They were raised by nanies while their only parent, a single mother, whos work over hours to provide evertything to them doesn't have the pacience to deal with them in her spare time...Not to mention Kathleen's drinking problems. She drinks everyday and drink too much, she is the one who says all the time that to be able to deal with her household issues and with her daughters she has to drink otherwise she would be having lots of pills and her kids would be in a orphanage. She used to say that not just to me but also to the kids.She used to ask me to go to the grocery store to buy her some wine.There's also the part in which she asked to the friends of the last au pair to not get in touch with me! Off course she knows she doesn't have a good track record. I got shocked when I heard from those au pairs that they were sorry they didn't get in touch with me earlier 'cause they feared kathleen.It was all coming together; Diana the area director also asked to some au pairs to not tell me about my host family history, the girls' behavior, the moms' behavior, the extra hours of work... Its was definitely not a professional attitude.It was then when I met one of the au pairs who lived with kathleen too. She got in touch with me trought the facebook and shared with me some stories of the time she was there in marblehead. This Australian girl also introduced me one of her good friends because she said if needed anything this girls could help me. And this friend of hers happens to be a Brazilian girls who lived in US for over 6 years and is very very kind.So I met this Brazilian girl personally and we talk, I told her about kathleen but she knew a lot about my host mom already. She had the opportunity to meet some au pairs who worked from kathleen as well.To make a long story short, the Brazilian girl introduce some other friends that introduce me some host families who needed an au pair.They encourage me to leave that family and move in with them if necessary.In the next day I had an "interview" with a prospective host family. Everything went well and I left the house I was leaving and also the agency with no warning fearing what kathleen could do.Kathleen initially thought I was going out just for the weekend. What she didn't know is that my friends were there earlier and had picked up all my stuff. So she would notice just later...I sent an email to my area director to warn them I was leaving that family, and to let them know what I had to put up with while living there although I'm pretty sure she had an clear idea of what was going on already. I haven't heard from them so far.I moved in with a family friends with the family that i'm working for now. They have an au pair too and they are hosting me until I move with to the new house. The family that i'm working for now have never had an au pair before. So they need set up a room for me there. While its still not ready I'm here living with their friends, which by the way, they are awesome! Very receptive.Everything's been great so far. My working hours are really flexible and Im enjoying what I'm doing.Thanks God things got better for me!That is how I put an end in my crazy moments in marblehead.