Random Advice

The Founding of YouTube A Short History

by CalifMom April 21, 2026

YouTube is one of the most influential platforms in modern media, but its origin story is surprisingly simple: a small team wanted an easier way to share video online. In the early 2000s, uploading and sending video files was slow, formats were inconsistent, and most websites weren’t built for smooth playback. YouTube’s founders focused on removing […]

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Au Pair Travel During Covid?

by cv harquail January 4, 2021

How are host parents handling travel requests to “touristy” places from their AP during Covid? We live in southern CA where the numbers are very high. Our AP recently submitted some time off for trips to San Francisco, Las Vegas and Dallas during January, February and March. We are not traveling or hosting anyone traveling […]

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Executive Order – does the Au Pair program take jobs from Americans?

by Texas HM June 26, 2020

By now I am assuming all of you have received emails from your agencies explaining that the recent executive order did in fact include APs and that as it stands now, that freeze will be in place until December 31st. I don’t think I am overstepping by saying that this was a surprise. You may […]

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Coronavirus and the AP Program – What’s the Reality?

by Texas HM March 11, 2020

I find global events and the repercussions of such fascinating. Y’all can debate in the comments whether that’s some milder version of Schadenfreude as my German AP taught me or if I should have just double majored in psychology and economics and missed my calling in college. I am curious though – especially in our […]

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Au Pairs: Still “low cost” childcare?

by cv harquail January 8, 2020

repost from 2008 One of the biggest selling points for having an au pair rather than other kinds of childcare is its relative cost. For years, having an Au Pair was less expensive for me than employing a full time professional nanny, and (especially for people with more than one child) less expensive than using […]

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How many is too many au pairs?

by Texas HM June 28, 2019

Let me start by being very clear. We have been BEYOND blessed by our au pairs over the years and their impact on our family and our children cannot ever be properly expressed. We have built a global family that spans the nations of Brazil, France, Germany, South Africa and Australia plus an Italian that […]

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Ghosted by our Au Pair Candidate — was it something we did?

by cv harquail June 5, 2019

“Dear Au Pair Mom– We are a new prospective HF looking for an au pair for the first time. We are targeting mostly Europeans and our main criteria is good driving. We’ve had interviews with a few candidates. We were close to matching (or so we thought) with a candidate from Germany who said all […]

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Does the punishment fit the crime here?

by Texas HM June 4, 2019

First off, let me just say that I am not a fan of judging the decisions or policies of other host families. What works for me might not work for you and vice versa and that is your business and ultimately only you can decide what your family is comfortable with and can/will tolerate. But… […]

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When Your AP Won’t Stop Comparing…

by Texas HM May 28, 2019

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt As human beings we have a fundamental need to evaluate ourselves and our situations and the only way to really do that is in reference to something else. In fact there was a study done on this in the 1954 that actually proved it and coined […]

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Should I only host transition APs?

by Texas HM May 22, 2019

Years ago we were hosting a transition au pair (friend of our au pair) and I got a phone call from a prospective transition host mom. I was a little surprised because I was not actually the host mom of this AP so my number was not even on her profile so I quickly made […]

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