Phases of AuPair’s Year

Finishing Strong – Having a Proactive Conversation about the End – by TexasHM

by Texas HM August 20, 2018
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  Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash Over the years in part thanks to some great advice on this site I have had many “we really need you to hold it together” proactive chats with our au pairs.  Some didn’t really need the chat and finished the last day with the same zeal and commitment that they did […]

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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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Effective Ways to Socialize with Your Au Pair?

by cv harquail May 21, 2018

When parents welcome an au pair into their home, it’s important for everyone to get to know each other. A few conversations around the dinner table and an occasional one-on-one trip to Starbucks were the ways that my DH and I made time to get to know our au pairs. I don’t know if we […]

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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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Inexpensive Ways for Au Pairs to Ship Boxes Back Home

by cv harquail October 11, 2017
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I knew we’d had a few posts about sending Au Pairs’ stuff back home when they leave — but I didn’t realize it had been seven years ago! Let’s update our info on best rates and options:  What does your family do? Our au pair is leaving in April after spending two years with our […]

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How Long Must We House Our Au Pair Once Her Contract Ends?

by cv harquail July 29, 2017
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Dear AuPairMoms — We have an au pair who is done with her year.  She decided she wanted to do another year, but not with us.  (redacted/ edited at request of OP, on Aug 4) She found a match, but the new family doesn’t want her to arrive immediately after her contract with us ends.  So, […]

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Help A Brand-New Au Pair Get Better At Her Job

by cv harquail June 24, 2017
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It’s not easy to settle in, whether you’re the new Au Pair or the First Time Host Mom. The American college student who sent this email hasn’t had the benefit of a formal Au Pair orientation, and I suspect that her host mom hasn’t had the benefit of a local counselor or group of moms […]

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Your Au Pair’s Bedroom: What to provide to make your Au Pair comfortable and welcome

by cv harquail October 11, 2016

Picture yourself in this room.  Imagine that you’ve just spent 8 hours with energetic kids, talking in your second language, driving on unfamiliar streets on the wrong side of the road. Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could walk upstairs, open the door, and step into a room like this?   It doesn’t have to […]

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Brand New Au Pair’s Extreme Homesickness — Can we turn it around?

by cv harquail August 16, 2016
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It seems like this brand new host mom did everything right (or, rather, took all of our recommendations) for getting started with an Au Pair. Careful consideration, lots of advance learning, deep interviewing, a handbook (!), and lots of positive energy. Even after their new Au Pair arrived and presented the challenge of extreme homesick, […]

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Interviewing Extension Au Pairs: Special Questions?

by cv harquail August 3, 2016
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A companion question to the post on Interviewing Rematch Au Pairs: Special Questions? With Extension Au Pairs, the number one question I’d have is — Why aren’t you staying with your current host family? I can think of a million perfectly acceptable reasons for wanting to have a different family for an extension. Seeing a different […]

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