Food: meals, eating, diets, nutrition

Au Pair Drinking Wine While On Duty: Okay or Ixnay? (Poll)

by cv harquail August 9, 2016

Dear Au Pair Mom — I have been an avid reader of your blog for awhile now and absolutely love the invaluable information and tips I have learned from it. I’m not entirely sure this is an issue but I think it has the potential to become one so I guess I’m just putting some […]

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Au Pair’s Increasingly Limited Diet is Increasingly Stressing Us

by cv harquail April 12, 2016

Everyone say it together: Rematch. Now. New Host Mom, this au pair is putting you through the wringer over food issues. You should try one more time to set some limits about what food you will and will not provide. You were clear when you were matching, and it’s your au pair who’s changed the […]

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Au Pairs With Manageable Health Issues – Would you match with them?

by cv harquail February 17, 2016

Two different young women — potential au pairs — write with the same question: How do Host Parents feel about matching with Au Pairs who have manageable health issues? By “manageable”, we mean — well understood, medicated or controlled successfully for a long time, not likely to interfere with caregiving, and not likely to flare up […]

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Au Pair Claims There’s Nothing To Eat, but the Fridge is Full

by cv harquail February 6, 2016

Dear Au Pair Moms — I am a first time host parent to a 20 year old au pair from Eastern Europe. She’s been with us for two months. We have two toddlers for whom she is responsible 4 days a week. She is “good” with the kids but definitely does not go above and beyond. We’ve […]

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Au Pair with Eating Disorder – Should She Leave Early?

by cv harquail November 14, 2015

We’re a little sensitive here at AuPairMom about the subject of eating disorders among young women. Some of us Moms have struggled with them, and some of us have children who have had or are currently working through eating disorders. So, as we go forward with this conversation, please be especially thoughtful. A brand new […]

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When Your Au Pair Eats “Too Much”

by cv harquail October 2, 2015

When you sign up for an Au Pair, you imagine your grocery bills to get about 20% larger. What’s incremental — beyond what you’re already buying — is another adult size portion of the main foods — another 8 oz of meat for each entree, 7 more bowls of cereal, another 3/4 of a gallon […]

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Au Pair Handbooks: Instructions about Child’s Allergies

by cv harquail May 16, 2015

As part of a series of posts on very specific information to include in your AuPair Handbook… One HostMom writes: I need to update our handbook to for our incoming au pair with details on our child’s allergy. I’m not sure what level of detail would be helpful, or how to make the issue serious […]

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Can an Au Pair Help An Anorexic Host Mom? Should She Try?

by cv harquail April 21, 2015

When an au pair notices that the host mom is having some kind of personal problem, should the au pair try to talk with the host mom about it? When I think about this question in the abstract, my answer is “Of course! If the au pair cares about the host mm as a person, […]

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Sheet Pan Suppers: Easy Meals for Au Pairs to Cook

by cv harquail April 17, 2015

“Mom, this chicken’s a winner.” ~ DD1 “You should email the cookbook author and thank her for that recipe.” ~ AuPairDad “Yay! You’re making the Spicy Peanut one again!” ~ DD2 These are all real quotes, prompted by a gift that Host Mom Page E. sent me– a cookbook called Sheet Pan Suppers, by Molly […]

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Au Pairs with Dietary Preferences Need to Cook for Themselves Sometimes

by cv harquail April 7, 2015

It seems that half the world has some kind of dietary restriction. I read a poem a few days ago about the challenge of trying to meet everyone’s different expectations, until the poet gave in and served a bowl of polished stones. (I wish I could find the poem– it was by a real poet, and […]

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