What light housework does and does not include
There is no official list of what light housework means, which is exactly why it becomes an argument. This article states what your permit actually allows, light supporting tasks, only for your host family, only at their address, always with someone else available, and never you alone responsible for the children or the house.
Last checked Aug 21, 2026
What light housework does and does not include
There is no official list of what light housework means. Your permit only covers light supporting tasks, for your host family, at their address, and there always has to be someone else who could step in, so you are never the only one responsible for the children or the household.
Why this is where most disagreements start
The IND's own review of the scheme notes that no exact definition of "light" exists, and names that gap as a direct source of disagreement between au pairs and host families. FairWork, the Dutch organisation against labour exploitation, has formally asked the government to sharpen the task list for exactly this reason. So if a task feels like it has drifted from what you agreed, you are not misreading the situation: the term itself has no fixed definition, and that is what lets tasks accumulate one at a time until the job looks nothing like what you signed up for.
What is actually fixed
Three things are not open to interpretation. The tasks are supporting, not primary: a parent or grandparent has to be present or directly available, so you are never the only person responsible for the children, and you are not fully responsible for the household either. The tasks are for your host family only: you may not do tasks for a second family, for an employer, or for a relative living nearby, even informally. And the tasks are at your host family's own address only. You also may not take on tasks for someone who needs special care requiring a specific skill, such as a family member with a medical condition. How many hours these tasks may take is a separate limit, covered in hours-what-counts.
Your signed schedule is your actual task list
In practice, the daily schedule you signed with your host family before your permit was granted is the closest thing to an official list you have. It states which tasks you do and when. See your-signed-daily-schedule for what has to be in it. If a task is not on it, that is the concrete thing to point at, rather than trying to argue about what "light" means in the abstract.
What Dutch authorities and media name as abuse
The examples the IND and Dutch reporting consistently point to are not ambiguous: deep cleaning the whole house, ironing for the entire family, cooking every meal every day, and garden or outdoor maintenance. Cleaning for a neighbour or a grandmother falls outside your permit for a different reason, it is not at your host family's address and not for your host family at all.
What to do when tasks keep getting added
If tasks are being added structurally rather than as an occasional favour, go back to your signed schedule and raise it with your agency. Checking that you are not doing more or other work than what was agreed is your agency's legal duty of care, not a favour they are doing you. This article does not judge whether your family is in the wrong, it tells you where the line actually is.