Random Advice

Are “crazy” Au Pair guidelines really all that crazy?

by cv harquail June 9, 2010

I laughed at the comment by Taking a Computer Lunch, on rules in her family handbook: My least favorite rule that I had to add – don’t burn candles and leave your room. Duh! As I look through our family handbook, there are some real doozies. My personal favorite is “In the evening, please do […]

217 comments Read the full article →

In Loco Parentis? Your Parental Responsibilities when your AP’s behavior challenges your values

by cv harquail June 1, 2010

As Host Parents, we have an odd role in our Au Pair’s lives. We are responsible for keeping them safe, housed, fed, and supported in their work with our children. And we also often play a role that I call Pseudo In Loco Parentis. Pseudo In Loco Parentis Like the fancy Latin? Years ago, women’s […]

23 comments Read the full article →

Yes, I’m playing with the formatting!

by cv harquail May 28, 2010

This weekend it’s pink, green & brown to match the new owl. Next week, it may be back to the old owl, but with blue & green colored text to match. Do you think the pink is too much? let me know! cv

18 comments Read the full article →

Working Mom Realities at TheMamaBee

by cv harquail May 14, 2010

For the small segment of the world who uses Twitter, Fridays are special days, full of treats. #FollowFriday (or #ff, for short) is a day when folks will tweet to recommend someone to follow… and it’s a great way to discover new resources and find new voices. Since most AuPairMom readers, like most Americans, aren’t […]

Read the full article →

Realizing you aren’t ready to be Au Pair host parents? And you have an Au Pair?

by cv harquail May 12, 2010

If we only knew then what we know now… being an Au Pair Host Parent would be really easy. Okay, easier. As our au pair parenting experiences unfold, we learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t, what we can change and what we can’t, how we can accommodate to an au pair and […]

28 comments Read the full article →

Extending Legally, Without an Agency: Ideas?

by cv harquail April 25, 2010

We would like advice on how to extend with out au pair legally, but by using a lawyer instead of going through our current agency. We want to disconnect from our agency, gently. To put it mildly, our experience with our agency & LCC has been a great disappointment. They are the only agency that […]

43 comments Read the full article →

When Your Au Pair Breaks Your Psychological Contract

by cv harquail April 24, 2010

July 19: Balancing act (58/61) by theDQT

[ Note: I think this might be the longest AuPairMom post I’ve ever written. It was a long train ride and I think I got carried away.] Host families and au pairs call it mutual expectations, and management scholars call it the “psychological contract”. The idea behind a psychological contract is that we agree to […]

25 comments Read the full article →

Recent Widower / Single Host Dad: How to find the right au pair?

by cv harquail April 21, 2010

Readers, Here’s a specific question about choosing the right au pair for a family that has lost their mom through tragedy. We had one host dad comment on our earlier post about single parents, and I know that there are at least two other host dad-readers who have lost their wives and who have hired […]

10 comments Read the full article →

We interrupt this vacation…

by cv harquail April 19, 2010

Hi AuPairMom readers — I didn’t think it would be this long between posts — we’ve gone off for a long-awaited family vacation and gotten sidetracked by volcano-related drama. Let it suffice to say that, since we leave for home from Rome, at the end of the week, we expect to slip underneath the ash […]

6 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →