au pair starting next week - gifts for children/family?

[minnessota]

Hello! I'm going to start as an au pair next week and I'm really excited about it. I've never been an au pair before but I've been hosted by local families in Ireland and the UK when I was studying English. I was pretty bad..... I think I can speak a lot better now. In those arrangements it's pretty common to bring something for the host family as a "thank you for letting me live with you" gift. I don't know if this is common for au pairs.

Have your au pairs brought gifts for you or your children from their home countries? Do you expect au pairs to do this? And if so what do you think it's a good gift?

I was thinking about a small bottle of local herb liqueur for the parents since they said in our skype interview they like to have some drinks in their free time (otherwise I wouldn't ever think about gifting alcohol to strangers). I'm a bit lost about the children though. They're a girl (9) and a boy (15). Since Easter is coming soon I was thinking maybe Easter eggs? Would it be too childish for the older boy? Personally I would never look down on free chocolate, and I'm 10 years older than him, but I want to know what parents of teenagers think about it?

Thank you in advance!

Chocolate sounds an excellent gift for the children, definitely not childish.

Thanks for replying! I'll probably get them chocolate. Let's see what AP hosts say about gifts then.

In the past - our Au pairs have brought with them, local biscuits from their town, local sweets etc. Or an arty activity or game that they could do with the children - a good way to break the ice between them.

good luck

The au pairs that brought gifts for us tended to bring things relevant to their own country (so the Finnish one came with a pippi longstocking book for dd and moomin toys for ds, our Italian au pair brought over delicious food treats from her area, the Australian one had a cuddly kookaburra toy, etc)

I'd say your local alcohol is good for the parents, the dc are a bit older than my dc were - have your host family told you what their dc enjoy? Get them something little related to their hobbies maybe, or anything from a local sports club maybe?

Please don't feel the need to spend very much. This is definitely a case of it's the thought that counts.

All my au pairs have brought small gifts. Mainly food for me (parmigiana, biscuits, sausages etc) and small toys or t-shirts for the kids. My kids would have preferred sweets to be honest

Thanks everyone :)

LyricalGangster I know they like sports and are in general outdoorsy kids. The girl likes tennis, hockey and dancing and the boy likes football and music. I tried to come up with some gift ideas related to that and/or my country but I can't think of anything that I would have liked at their age, to be honest.

OVienna I wasn't planning on spending too much but I don't want to go empty handed, it feels like basic courtesy!

I'll try to find local themed sweets or chocolates. Thank you again for all your help!