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Choosing an Au Pair

What the best way to Pre-Match with an Au Pair, before connecting to an Agency?

by cv harquail September 1, 2011

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could meet a really terrific young person from anther country, discover that you had complementary world views, and THEN go through an official agency to engage him or her as an au pair? From time to time, we get questions from either parents or potential au pairs about how [...]

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When Facebook Information Raises Concerns: Should she match, or pass?

by cv harquail July 7, 2011

Oh, the complexities of Facebook. And the generation gap. And the generation gap regarding Facebook. If it’s “true” that “young people” use Facebook differently from us (slightly older) parent people: How much should we infer from an au pair applicant’s Facebook page? Now that many of us ask to ‘friend’ our au pairs and prospective [...]

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When your Au Pair meets the Kids’ Needs but not the Parent’s Expectations: Ideas wanted

by cv harquail June 14, 2011

Kids and parents want different things. Kids want to stay up, parents want to go to sleep. Kids want to make a mess, parents want that mess cleaned up (eventually). Kids get engaged in fun and learning, while parents must take care of safety, nutrition, and other not-quite-as-fun stuff. We have different sets of priorities. [...]

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Matching Again with a Former Au Pair

by cv harquail June 3, 2011

Can we ever ‘step in the same river twice’? Can we pick up where we left off in a great host family – au pair relationship? Or, is every au pair match, no matter with whom, a new adventure? Is it possible to answer ‘yes’ to all of those questions, at the same time? HostMominVA [...]

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Choosing an Au Pair: Application Videos as Tools to Help Matching

by cv harquail May 26, 2011

If a picture paints a thousand words, then what does an Au Pair’s application video do? Au Pair videos seem like a great way to get a sense of an au pair’s personality and command of English. Even though someone could script and then rehearse perfect grammar and expression, you’d still get o hear his [...]

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Choosing an Au Pair: Will being “in recovery” from an eating disorder ruin my chances to Au Pair?

by cv harquail May 22, 2011

Would you match with a candidate who told you that she’d been treated for anorexia, and was currently healthy and in recovery? (Keep in mind that being “in recovery” for an anorexic is like being ‘”in recovery” for an alcoholic, in the sense that you are never “over it”, but always in the process of [...]

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Your Family’s Au Pair Selection Process: Previous Au Pairs as References

by cv harquail May 20, 2011

  What has it been like for you to know that your former au pairs are discussing your family with prospective new aupairs? How has this worked out for you? Do you recommend this step in the Selection Process  to other host families?

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Your Family’s Au Pair Selection Process: Checking references

by cv harquail May 20, 2011

In a perfect world, we’d check the references supplied by each au pair candidate. It’s just too easy for someone who was untrustworthy to create references that make him or her look better than reality, especially when the reference givers do not speak English fluently. But, I must admit, in all of the times that [...]

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Your Au Pair Selection Process: What’s your “Information Style”? (poll)

by cv harquail May 16, 2011

How do you “position” your family when you make your initial contacts with prospective Au Pairs? Do you like to lay all the cards out on the table, tough expectations and all, in the hopes that only the strongest will pursue a match with you? (Dare ‘Ya) Do you like to start sunny and light, [...]

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Your Family’s Au Pair Selection Process: Emails and Information before an Interview

by cv harquail May 16, 2011

It’s critical to send potential au pair candidates some information about your family before you call them. You want offer enough information about your family so that you and the prospective au pair can tell easily whether it’s worth pursuing a potential match. In addition to sorting out potential mismatches on objective criteria like number [...]

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