Some kids aren’t afraid to speak their minds, and one au pair is feeling the force of her host children’s unfiltered opinions.
Sarah Pascarella, who has been a nanny in France since September of last year, went viral this week after sharing her reasons for why, in her words, you need to have some “big ole balls” to be around French kids.
In the viral clip, which has amassed over 2.4 million views so far, the 22-year-old gives a couple of examples, such as trying to engage in small talk with her host children after school and instead being met with, “I hate it when you ask me those questions.”
Au pair Sarah Pascarella reveals the problems of talking to kids in France. She told Newsweek that some of the reaction to her viral video came from the French who took “great pride” in continuing generations of brutal honesty.
@sasscarella
The nanny (@sasscarella on TikTok) also showed one of her host children a picture of her friend, and she gave her an honest opinion (“she’s not pretty”) and walked away.
Pascarella, who grew up in San Diego, California, said that French kids’ bluntness goes beyond the typical honesty expected from young children: “They grow up under a very brutally honest culture, and it seems like those traits get instilled in them very early on.”
Her host children’s favorite saying when Pascarella tries to teach them English is a simple “you cannot”, she added.
The Californian’s video also prompted thousands of comments from other TikTok users, with many other nannies who lived abroad writing about their experiences.
“I was a live-in nanny one summer alone with 2 under 10 French kids. They roasted me so hard daily and only wanted to listen to [singer-songwriter] Glasser,” one TikTok user commented.
Another had a kid walk up to them and ask them why they were wearing a belt. They replied because they thought it looked nice. The kid bluntly said: “Well, it doesn’t.”
Others agreed that dealing with French children was no mean feat: “French kids are not for the weak,” one user wrote.
Navigating these cultural differences hasn’t been easy for Pascarella, and she told Newsweek that her skin has got thicker ever since she arrived in France.
Expanding on her TikTok video, she said: “It takes a lot of ‘balls’ but more ‘guts’ since I’m not a male, to move your entire life across the world and then put yourself in a position to get bullied by children from a completely different culture than yours.”
However, despite the challenges, Pascarella loves her two host children dearly. “They are the little sisters I never had, and I think they see me as family too. They are sassy, but admittedly, I dish it right back.
“I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect integration to this country with a loving and incredibly entertaining host family,” she added.
