Sharing great ideas

Back to School – How to Ease the Transition by TexasHM

by Texas HM August 8, 2018

Can you believe it’s that time of year again?!  If you are anything like me, in spite of how awesome my kids are about this time every year I am counting the days back to school (and the routine it brings back into our household)!  So how can host parents and au pairs work together to […]

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Screening Questionnaire to Improve Your Luck In Matching with an Au Pair

by cv harquail November 18, 2017
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We can’t interview our way to a “perfect” Au Pair. It’s the sad truth.   BUT…  we CAN interview well and screen out all the ‘known no’s”… which makes it a bit easier to find an Au Pair candidate with a lot of YES! LongIslandHostMom challenged herself to summarize a lot of our community wisdom to […]

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Recommend Your Favorite Parenting Books

by cv harquail September 11, 2016
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My neighbor is having her first baby, and I wanted to give her my favorite parenting book — “Becoming The Parent You Want To Be”. But when I went to Amazon to order a copy I was shocked — shocked — to discover that the book is now ten years old. Not that the advice […]

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Au Pair Handbook: Describing “Give and Take” Philosophy

by cv harquail May 23, 2015
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One in an ongoing series of posts on very specific information to include in your AuPair Handbook… HostMom MeanwhileInCanada writes: I am currently in the process of revising the section of my handbook on give-and-take & related attitude (it’s in the section on “being part of the family”). I know there have been multiple discussions on […]

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Fun Au Pair Activities for Monthly Cluster Meetings– ideas?

by cv harquail March 8, 2015
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Dear AuPairMom and Readers–   I enjoy reading the blog and learning from all your advice.  I wonder if we could crowd-source some ideas?   Our Au Pair Community Counselor is a lovely person, but sometimes she seems a little out of touch with what Au Pairs might think is fun or useful. Our Counselor […]

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Au Pair Host Family Fun for Thanksgiving

by cv harquail November 10, 2014
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20 Fun Things You Can Do with Family on Thanksgiving Hi Host moms—  I found this great list of ideas for Thanksgiving on the DumbLittleMan Tips for Life blog. It’s such a great list that there is no way to summarize it and do it justice, so I’m excerpting it in large chunks… but if […]

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Share Your System? Tips from Host Parents

by cv harquail October 23, 2014
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A new kind of open thread, where you can share the systems that keep you sane.

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3 Easy Ways to Help Your Au Pair Use Your Home Appliances Correctly

by cv harquail October 10, 2014
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American appliances have too many options. Having endless options is great for getting just the right setting for a specific task, but it becomes quite a problem when you’re forever trying to remember which combinations of buttons and levers to press. Between our vacuum cleaner (5 attachments, 3 wands and 5 buttons), our washer (23 […]

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Should She Ask Her Host Mom To Read AuPairMom?

by cv harquail September 8, 2014
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Dear AuPairMom – I have been reading AuPairMom while I was deciding to become an au pair and I was expecting that what you have on this blog explains what an au pair should expect. My host mom seems to be having some struggles with having an au pair. I’m my family’s first au pair. My family is […]

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How does your professional expertise influence your Host Parenting?

by cv harquail April 3, 2014

All lot of us au pair moms and dads have interesting professional experience. I know from emailing many of you ‘behind the blog’ that we have doctors, lawyers, government service managers, someone who does pr for a city, customer service managers, law enforcement officers, a judge, school teachers, accountants, strategic consultants, small business owners, a […]

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