February 2010

When your Local Community Counselor can’t remember your name

by cv harquail February 25, 2010
frAULIEN MARIA

Wanna talk about creating a good relationship with your Local Community Counselor (LCC)? Let’s take a tip from a real Super Nanny, TSOM’s Fraulein Maria. “Let’s start at the very beginning.” No one (neither Au Pair nor host parent) can have a supportive relationship with an LCC unless the LCC does two basic things: (1) […]

48 comments Read the full article →

Tax Info For Au Pairs

by cv harquail February 24, 2010
Small Gathering Anna Maria Horner.jpeg

HostDadinNJ sent me a PDF of information from the Au Pair Care Agency, which answers lots of questions AND has some great links to official & legal information. Sadly, I can’t figure out how to upload the pdf to the blog, since I’m missing the MSQL PHP or something.  However, in the meantime, if you […]

5 comments Read the full article →

3 Qualities of a Great Local Community Counselor

by cv harquail February 24, 2010
hleewell.jpg

We’ve got quite a backlog of posts waiting to go up about LCCs (Local Community Counselor)  — those agency employees who are in charge of your local cluster of au pairs and host families. If you use an agency, your LCC can make or break your au pair experience. She is the link between the […]

27 comments Read the full article →

Honest Truth, how many weeks are over 45 hrs? (Poll)

by cv harquail February 23, 2010
sureshot coffee.jpg

The controversy continues! There’s now some concern over just how widespread is the practice of having your au pair work more than 45 hours a week. Let’s try to put some numbers in this — I’d love to get an empirical assessment of this practice… Problem is that an online poll will NOT give us […]

44 comments Read the full article →

Do Au Pairs have to pay income tax?

by cv harquail February 22, 2010
_3189_2528721423_f274e19ac5.jpg

I never really thought much about whether Au Pairs have to pay US income taxes. I always thought that one of the benefits of using an Au Pair Agency was that the agency somehow dealt with that? Or maybe they don’t make enough money really to have anything to pay? I honestly don’t know what […]

81 comments Read the full article →

Tim Gunn’s advice on breaking the rules

by cv harquail February 21, 2010
201002211459.jpg

If you ask Tim Gunn for advice about breaking the rules, he’ll tell you two things: 1. Make it work, and 2. Use the Bluefly accessories wall thoughtfully. Both pieces of Tim Gunn’s advice to fashionistas apply to au pairs & host families. In general, I am black handbag = black shoes kind of person. […]

6 comments Read the full article →

Sad Host Mom: How to break the bad news about her visa

by cv harquail February 20, 2010
shaded memories etsy

Parents, we got this email from an active commenter, who doesn’t really have a “problem” we can fix — but she does need us a little bit. Can you share any wisdom that might make this hard situation a little easier for her and her Au Pair? We love our au pair. She came to […]

15 comments Read the full article →

Best Practices for asking your Au Pair to work Overtime

by cv harquail February 19, 2010
birds charmlady etsy.jpg

Based on the overwhelming response to the post from NJ Dad wanting to know more about common practices when folks ask their au pairs to work overtime, I thought it would be a good idea to summarize the key findings. Just to be clear– nobody is recommending that you expect your AP to work over […]

21 comments Read the full article →

Au Pair Asks: Host Dad is Mean to Child

by cv harquail February 16, 2010
201002151502.jpg

Although this blog is not really for au pairs, there are times when other host parents are the best folks to offer advice to an au pair. This particular situation is a tough one, since the problem concerns how the Host Dad treats his son, and how (or even whether) the Host Mom and the […]

5 comments Read the full article →

Our Au Pair is not the cheerful girl we expected. Now what?

by cv harquail February 15, 2010
_160_405224443_0603b19d78.jpg

We’re 1 month into our first au pair and not sure if it’s going to be ok or not. Just to clarify we’re based outside the US so our au pair has not come to us through an agency, in fact she is American. We have 3 kids, all under 6 and there is no […]

37 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries