House Rules and Expectations for Smith Family Members

Sample House Rules – Please use these as a guide and update according to what is important to your family. Welcome to California and the Smith Family!  As a member of the Smith Family, following are some house rules to ensure we all have a happy & successful year living together.  We are excited to have you as a member of our family and will work to have open communication so we all have a successful year together!  Household Duties (shared by the family)       Help to prepare meals. Help to set/clear the table for meals. Help to fill and empty dishwasher. Help to empty trash/recycle. Make sure to rinse items for recycling. Paper, plastic, etc can all be recycled. Trash is taken out each Wednesday night. Clean up after oneself, especially in kitchen and bathrooms. Help to keep common living areas tidy.  Bedroom     Please keep your room clean. No candles. If you’d like to hang something up, please ask before doing so. Let us know what additional items you need to make your room more comfortable. We will be respectful of your private bedroom space and ask that you be respectful of our private bedroom space.  Bathroom   Please keep the bathroom neat. While it is primarily yours to use, we will need to use it from time to time. Let us know when you run out of shampoo/soap etc.  Laundry  You have your own set of towels and sheets. We encourage you to be mindful of the laundry schedule, so everyone has equal access to the washer and dryer. House Cleaning  We keep the house neat and expect the house to be clean and all the children’s toys put away each day before you are off duty. A cleaning service comes to clean the house every other week.  When Leaving House   Lock front/back doors Turn off lights  Guests     Always ask permission and introduce us before inviting a friend or other au pair to our home. No guests over the house during working hours unless it has been approved. No guests allowed when we are out of town unless it has been approved. Please do not give guests a copy of any house key or digital access code without our explicit permission.   Curfew   Midnight curfew on work-nights, if your work day begins at 8:00am the next morning. We expect you to be alert and ready for work each day and to have had at least 8 hours of sleep. For non-work nights, we ask that you be considerate and keep us informed of your whereabouts so we don’t worry about you and know you are safe.  Phone/Address To help us stay in touch as a family, we have added you to our phone plan and will provide you with a cell phone.  Memorize our cell phone numbers (cell phone batteries can run out)  Please limit cell phone use during working hours for planning play dates or contact with us. No personal calls or texts during work hours. Your cell phone plan [includes xxxx minutes/is unlimited/etc.]. Please make sure to remain within the limits of the plan. If you need to adjust the plan, let us know and we can work out a plan for you to pay for your overage use. Cell phone is for calls/texts within the US.The plan does not include international service.      For international texts and calls, please try to use a free messaging service like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, or use a pre-paid international phone card. Please do not give our home address to anyone except family/friends in your home country for whom you wish to receive correspondence. Do not give our address to new people you meet, companies requesting your address, any “sweepstakes” unless you ask our permission in advance.  TV & Family Computer     As a family, we do not watch a lot of TV but love movies and have a movie night 2 times a week. We do not want our children to watch TV or videos during the day. Please do not watch TV while you are working during the day. You are welcome to use the computer in the living room. We use this computer for work and will have priority when we are home. Please do not download programs/content onto the computer without our permission. Car           You have permission to drive the car during working hours to take the children to school, play dates, library, park etc. Please only drive in the local area within 10-15 miles from home (no driving to [city] or outside of the area unless you receive permission). As a member of the family, you may use the car on your time off, but please ask permission as this is a family car that is shared. We ask that you take public transportation if you plan to go into the city or on a trip that is over 1015 miles away. Never let anyone else drive the car. We do not want the children driven around by other people, you should be the only person that drives the children in the car. If you get in to a car accident, call 911 or ask someone to call 911 if anyone is hurt. If you are not hurt, take a photo with your phone andcall us. If car breaks down, call AAA to come tow car to the nearest garage. Call us. If the car is nearing empty, please fill up the car. If you use the car for personal use we will share in the cost for gas. If the majority of car use if for driving the children, save the receipt and we will reimburse you. You will be added to our Insurance policy. Please keep the copy of insurance with you at all times. Please keep the car neat.   Car Safety   No drinking in the car. NO DRINKING & DRIVING. Triple check that the children are buckled into their car seat correctly.      Never leave the children in the car alone. Not even for 5 minutes – it is against the law. Be sure to practice safe driving- keep speeds low especially with children in the car. Any speeding tickets or parking violations will be your responsibility to pay. Go slow for bikers on the main road - never pass bikers on turns/curves. Watch out for local wild animals, like deer, especially at night.   Sports Equipment    You can have use of a bike while you are with us. If you want to take the baby for a hike we have the baby bjorn and a baby backpack. Tennis rackets, football, frisbees etc, you can feel free to borrow.  Food    Please let us know what kind of food you would like to eat on a regular basis. That way, we can make sure to add it to any grocery list. You are welcome to eat/drink anything in the house and do not need to ask permission. If we run out of something (milk, eggs, cheese) please write it down so someone can be sure to get more. You might be asked to periodically make a trip to the grocery store. Please keep receipts and we will reimburse you.  Miscellaneous  No smoking.  Outdoors    We would like you to schedule at least one outdoor activity each day with the children when weather permits. This will be positive for you and the children. There are many beautiful walks, hikes, parks in the neighborhood. We encourage you to make play dates with other au pairs who are caring for children of similar age. Contact information of other local au pairs can be found in your portal. There are many free activities in the area to do with young children, we encourage you to research these activities online and go do them (tea time at the library, farmers market, etc.)  Communication      If you don't understand something we said, always ask us to repeat or explain. If you have something important that you would like to discuss with us, it's best to wait for a time when the children are asleep or quiet, so we can give the matter our full attention. If you get frustrated with the children or stressed out – please call us, we can help! Please be sure to take notes of your day with the baby, this will be a great way for us to communicate about the baby’s care. Always talk to us first and be sure to communicate how you are feeling.