Hey Au Pairs,

I think all of us au pairs have experienced at least one scary situation during our time abroad. I definitely have, but I live to tell the tale! I know it can seem absolutely dreadful in the moment, but fear not because you’re not alone and time really does heal all wounds!

Check out my top two scariest au pair moments down below!

Breaking the Washing Machine

All I wanted to do was wash my favorite top, so after dropping my au pair kids off at school, I did just that. I threw my favorite top into the washing machine along with a few other things and hit start.

After a few minutes the machine produced an error sign and wouldn’t stop beeping. I panicked and cried. Would my host parents make me pay for it? Would they hate me forever? These were the thoughts running through my head. I tried to fix it myself but was unsuccessful.

Eventually when my host parents came home, I mustered up the strength to confess what happened and to my surprise they were extremely understanding. They scheduled the technician to come in the following day and told me not to sweat it. Although comforting, that didn’t stop me from apologizing profusely and feeling an enormous amount of guilt.

The error produced by the washing machine was due to my bra. Apparently it had caught onto one of the smaller parts in the machine and caused it to malfunction. Oops.

The Time I Almost Set the House on Fire

It was a weekend my host family was away on vacation and I was home alone. I had planned to go away for the weekend and wanted to grab a quick bite before heading out to catch the bus that left in less than an hour.

Naturally, I decided on frying up some chicken nuggets and thought they would cook quicker if I turned up the heat on the oil. Big mistake. I turned away for a second to grab the chicken nuggets and to my surprise the pan went up in flames!

I had started an oil fire.

I panicked. I didn’t know what to do but my first instinct was to put out the fire with water. Swiftly, I grabbed a cup of water and splashed it onto the fire (which I later discovered is NOT how you put out an oil fire-you’re instead supposed to suffocate it) and thanks to some mystical forces in the universe, the fire went out.

As relieved I was not to have burned the house down I was left with the aftermath of cleaning up all the soot. Did I mention the color scheme in this kitchen was ALL WHITE? Thankfully soap and water did the trick and I was able to scrub down every inch of the kitchen clean. I opened all the windows in the home and prayed the smell would go away by the time the family got back from vacation.

Upon arriving back from my weekend getaway the smell had vanished and the kitchen looked pristine. To this day my host family doesn’t have a clue what happened in that kitchen and I haven’t touched a chicken nugget since.

Have you almost set the house on fire too? Let me know your scariest au pair moment down below and check out Hanna and Edwina’s scariest au pair moments in the video!