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However, a cell phone for an au pair is not just useful during an emergency. Friends can call the au pair directly on the cell phone and don’t have to bother you by calling your landline every time they want to talk to your au pair. If there are many things in your family that need to be organized and there are many appointments to remember we recommend you get the au pair a smartphone. A smartphone can be directly linked to Google Calendar.
As a host family, this gives you the opportunity to enter tasks and appointments even when you are not at home. You can then share these, for example, with the au pair and your children. This way, everybody is always up to date. Obviously, for this to work, everybody in the family needs a smartphone. You could also enter the weekly plan for your au pair in Google Calendar and the au pair will get a reminder on their cell phone , so no task will be forgotten.
Furthermore, if your au pair uses a smartphone as a cell phone, the au pair will have access to many free apps. They could use a chat app to send text messages for free. At home, the au pair can connect the smartphone to the Wi-Fi.
We recommend host families get their au pairs a cell phone plan with a flat rate for calling other cell phones and using the internet. You can get a smartphone plan for as little as 15 euros per month. This makes it easier for your au pair to reach friends and family back home, and without additional costs. It is even possible to use the smartphone for video chats and video phone calls. Staying connected will help your au pair feel less homesick, and the au pair will really appreciate the smartphone. A smartphone costs about 80 euros. Since smartphone plans are so cheap now, it’s usually not worth getting a prepaid phone. If you add up the costs for calls and text messages, you usually end up spending the same amount on a prepaid phone as you would have with the plan.
