Granny Aupair

Based in Hamburg, Granpreneur Michaela Hansen is the founder of Granny Aupair, which sends women aged 50+ abroad as au pairs, house sitters and companions. Granny Aupair enables women to travel and the families they stay with get really experienced childcare. The Grannies play, paint, bake or sing with the children. They provide love and comfort and are there for the children when their parents are busy.

Michaela Hansen  founded Granny Aupair, which sends women aged 50+ abroad as au pairs and companions in 2010.  Married at 19, first child at 20, the second at 21 – Michaela Hansen’s dream of spending time abroad went up in smoke. So she chose a different path. After completing an office clerk training she studied and got a degree in criminology and sociology and together with her husband she founded a PR agency. But she remained dreaming of the wide world!

The idea to place women over 50 with host families was born after Michaela watched a programme about young au pairs and realized there was no similar offer for older women.  Today Michaela’s Granny Aupair initiative, with its website in four languages, enables women to travel and the families they stay with get really experienced childcare, with over 1,000 Grannies having been placed in over 50 countries since 2010.  The Granny is treated as a family member, has free room and board. In return she cares for the children, as only a grandmother can (even if she is not related to them) and gets the chance to experience other countries and cultures in another way.

Both sides profit from the placement: The Granny Aupair helps look after the kids, for instance by taking and fetching them from nursery or school. Often the Granny cooks if the parents are busy and gives the children a hand with homework.

Families and Grannies can first register free of charge on the website and view the profiles of the Grannies looking for a family and vice versa. To get in touch with a Granny you become a member of the community and can thus send and receive contact requests and discuss all further details of a placement with the Grannies of your choice. Michaela also offers regular information sessions and workshops for potential Granny Aupairs to prepare them for their placement.