Oktober 2007 

 

 

Dear Au Pair,

 

It is for us a privilege to write you this letter. A privilege but also a bit strange as we are writing this letter to a person who will become very important in our life as well as in the life of our 2 sons. We don’t take this lightly.

 

We are __________ and ______________, both 39 years old and we are together since 10 years.

 

Let us tell you a bit more about our background..

I am the eldest daughter of _____ (60) and ______ (56) Burke, jointly they run a ________-practice in a village near to usnamely Heemstede. ______ is originally from _________ but lives now in Holland since he was 5 years old. They are married for 40 years. They are both very active in sports (soccer, tennis) and they are also playing an important role to _____ and _____.

I am at this moment in my 4th academical year of becoming a dentist . My first Academical Degree in Business Economics was 10 years ago. During my pregnancy, I decided to make a turn in my business life. Till that moment (I was 33 years at that time) I have had several marketing functions at Philip Morris, a huge American multinational which sells Tobacco, beer and confectionery among other things. For the long term, this job was not sati factionary to me. Therefore I took on the challenge to broaden my horizon by submitting to this 5 year study (at least). It is my conviction that when it feels right, i.e. you get energy out of it, it is worthwhile finalising it. So far, I get a lot of energy out of the study…..although it is tough to be And a Mother And a student again.

I am also active in sports (jogging, yoga and skiing) and enjoy spending quality time with my family and friends, preferably in nice, easy-going restaurants/ bars, next to and foremost of course spending time with _____ and _____.

I believe that a child can never get too much love, but of course a child also needs strict guidelines.

 

I am the youngest son of ______ (73) and ________ (70); I have 3 elderly brothers. We are raised in the Northern part of Holland called Friesland. My father had his own agency as architect; my mother took care of her sons. _____ and ____ are the first grandsons of my parents (as well as for ____ and ____ by the way). They want to spend as much as time possible with _____ and ___ however due to the distance (150 km to the north) this amounts to once in a 2-months period….for proud grandparents never enough…

 

I started my own consultancy firm since 3 years after spending 15 years with the 2 American Companies Philip Morris (yes indeed, this is how I met ______) and Coca-Cola. As Coca-Cola wanted me, as Managing Director for the last 4 years in Holland, to move abroad to take on new challenges within the company, I decided to take a different in-road for my career. Key reason for this decision has been our mutual principle to raise our children close to our family and friends. We strive to give our children roots and wings based on all the love and happiness that surrounds us. Within the International career-path of Coca-Cola (the life of an ex-pat) we saw not enough depth and heritage towards this principle.

You will undoubtedly think that you will become part of a very sportive family as I also like to play soccer and tennis in my leisure time….This is true although over the last years we could not enjoyed it the way we wanted to.

 

This brings us to our key reason why we want you to become part of our family…Quality Time. Our lives are quite hectic in the sense that starting an own company..going to the university 4 days in the week is very energy-consuming, but than again very rewarding….

We believe that you will bring us the needed flexibility in our lives in such a way that we can even more enjoy raising our sons. By making you part of our family we jointly can take on this loving and important task.

Therefore it is equally important for us that you will enjoy the time you will spend with us. We want to know what your reasons are of becoming an au-pair in this stage of your life..maybe to get to know a different culture or to meet new friends or any other reason. By knowing this we can make sure that you will get the maximum output out of your time with us. This is so important for us as our principle in life is that you should feel good about yourself in order to give love and care to others…

An additional reason for us to have an au-pair (above other potential arrangements) is that we see it as an advantage that our sons will get acquainted with a different culture and language.

 

We are very excited to get to know you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

______________

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