To our au pair,

Welcome to the United States and Sudbury. Jackie, Jim, and Christopher (“Tuffer”) look forward to your arrival.

Sudbury is a quiet, friendly town, 20 miles west of Boston. In recent years, many young families have moved into town to take advantage of the highly regarded school system and nice living environment. Our own neighborhood has four babies and several other children, in addition to some longtime residents. Our house is a modest 3-bedroom Cape Cod style house on a large lot that borders on the Sudbury River (the river isn’t really much of a river, more of a large stream, actually). The neighborhood is quiet and offers opportunities for jogs, bike rides, roller blading, etc. Your bedroom will be on the first floor, while ours and Christopher’s are upstairs. We are located only a few minutes away from a lot of shopping opportunities and movie theaters in Framingham and Natick.

Jackie and Jim are active professionals. We both have advanced degrees in engineering. We like outdoor activities, especially ultimate Frisbee. We each play on competitive club teams, which compete in several weekend tournaments across the country each year. We also like to work out and engage in other sports as time permits. When we can, we throw Frisbee in the back yard, kick the soccer ball around, hit golf balls, work out at the local YMCA, and occasionally jog around the neighborhood.

Jackie is extremely hard working and devoted to her job and her son. She works in Sudbury as a manager of the Power Electronic Systems engineering department at Raytheon, a major government contractor. She supervises 160+ employees and frequently has to catch up on work email at home on nights and weekends. She also likes to exercise.

Jim works as a systems analyst in Cambridge. This is a change from his education and previous experience as a mechanical engineer, but it gives him a chance to work more with numbers and analysis. He has a dry sense of humor, typical of computer geeks. In addition to ultimate, he loves golf and likes to read.

For most house chores, we employ a “divide and conquer” strategy. Jim does most of the food shopping and preparation, Jackie takes care of most of the cleaning (in addition to employing a housekeeper every other week), Jim cuts the grass and cleans the yard, Jackie decorates. For things like going to the garbage dump or returning the library books, whoever is available does the task. Jackie handles the majority of the child responsibilities, but Jim looks after the baby as well.

Christopher is a happy little boy. He likes to play with trucks, look at his books, and practice saying the words he knows. He is comfortable with a lot of people. At eighteen months old, he still has a lot of growing to do. He eats and sleeps pretty well, although he can be a little fussy occasionally.

We plan to continue daycare for two days a week, so Tuffer can continue to get regular exposure to other children and so we can have help at home when we need to work or have Frisbee tournaments on the weekend. On days he goes to daycare, we need your help in getting him ready in the morning, but you’d be free during the day. On the other weekdays, you’ll look after him here at the house while we are at work. It won’t be a rigid schedule. There will be weekends or weeks where we're out of town visiting family or competing in frisbee tournaments where you'll be on your own. We also expect that we'd like you to come with us on some of these trips (at our expense, of course). At home, we’re hoping to share some household responsibilities like cooking or tending to the needs of the two cats, Popeye and Squirt. We’ll have to work together on what will help us all maximize our quality of life.

Looking forward to having you in our home,

Jim, Jackie, and Tuffer