We are pleased to spotlight the third-place winner of our 2017 Au Pair of the Year contest, Supattra “Oi” Jairew, an au pair from Thailand. A teacher in her home country, Oi took on the fun task of teaching her one-year-old charge some words in Thai, and she quickly won the hearts of her entire host family with her caring nature and generous spirit.
Here is an excerpt from the essay submitted by Oi’s host family:
“When my husband and I were evaluating child care options, one compelling reason we chose an au pair from Au Pair in America to be our childcare provider was the opportunity for our daughter to be exposed to another language and culture. We matched with an engaging, intelligent, and caring au pair named Supattra “Oi” Jairew.
During the match process, we expressed to Oi our desire that our child learn Thai. Oi was excited to share her language and culture in additional to improving her own English and learning more about the USA. From the first day, Oi spoke to our little one in both English and Thai. Although we had a few Thai children’s books, we found that even in the age of the internet, acquiring more books was difficult. When we reached a dead end in finding books, Oi offered to translate some English children’s books. Oi, a teacher in her home country, painstakingly translated each phrase in our daughter’s books. Now, our little girl smiles with joy each time she sits in Oi’s lap and Oi reads stories to her in both English and Thai.
The most important thing is that Oi helps keep us connected to our child when she is not with us. Each day, Oi texts us pictures of how our little girl spends her time and gives a summary of her activities. This makes it a little easier to be at work when our daughter is at home. My favorite thing about having Oi as our au pair is something that most parents who work outside of the home cannot experience when their child is in care – I get to give hugs to my daughter each time she goes on a walk near my office. Whenever Oi takes our little one on a walk nearby, I get a text inviting me to pop out and see my little girl – that means so much.
Oi’s passion for being an au pair not only involves being an exceptional child care provider, but extends to integrating into our family and community. Oi joined a local church and takes classes in the community in addition to those for her visa requirements. In her free time, she enjoys exploring nearby areas. She participates in all our events – she truly is part of our family. For our daughter’s Christening, Oi hand embroidered a special sign that is displayed in our little girl’s bedroom. Our family eats together often – Oi shares Thai recipes, while we share traditional American recipes and other family recipes. We spend a lot of time discussing cultural similarities, each country’s language and even play word games at dinner as Oi wishes to maximize her time in the USA to improve her English.”
Congratulations to Oi for her excellent work and recognition as an Au Pair of the Year award winner!
Learn more about how you and your family can host an au pair like Oi!
