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3 Qualities of a Great Local Community Couselor

February 24, 2010

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 rules [...]

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

February 23, 2010

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 a SCIENTIFIC count… [...]

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Do Au Pairs have to pay income tax?

February 22, 2010

I have absolutely no idea 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.
But someone [...]

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Tim Gunn’s advice on breaking the rules

February 21, 2010

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. But there are times [...]

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

February 20, 2010

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 use [...]

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Best Practices for asking your Au Pair to work Overtime

February 19, 2010

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 45 [...]

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Au Pair Advice: Host Dad is Mean to Child

February 16, 2010

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 [...]

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

February 15, 2010

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 language [...]

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Extra Hours: What’s fair pay when you break this taboo?

February 13, 2010

Many parents find that 45 hours a week is not enough childcare.
Either you have an emergency late night at work, a kid home sick, a snow day, or a bookclub meeting. Some parents have work + commute combos that mean they’re away from home 10 hours a day, m-f, even if they stagger their departures [...]

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Can an Au Pair be happy without driving privileges?

February 11, 2010

[[This question popped up in a different comment thread, and I've pulled it out for its own page & conversation, seeing as how this is an issue for many of us. I'll eventually re-post the comments already made, but here is a start:]]
My husband and I are expecting our first au pair in May. [...]

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