Caring for children

Swim Safely, by following my sister’s rules

by cv harquail June 10, 2009

My sister Julia and her family spend the bulk of their summer at the New Jersey shore, biking between the pool at my dad’s house, the pool at the beach club, the river and the ocean. Only one of these locations has professional lifeguards– the rest of the time we all depend on sensible swimmers […]

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Au Pair Advice: Can we get her to speak the right language with the kids?

by cv harquail May 21, 2009

Sing me Spanish techno? This just in from Madrid!! A host mom with a different kind of language challenge! Just about every host family- au pair relationship I know of feels some kind of communication challenge… and these are always exacerbated when the host family and au pair grew up speaking different languages. But this […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: Brazilian Manny wins “Au Pair of the Year”

by cv harquail May 9, 2009

From a press release issued by Cultural Care: CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 10 /PRNewswire/ A young journalism student from Natal, Brazil who has shown compassion and dedication in his daily care for a special needs boy, has earned the distinction of being named the"International Au Pair of the Year". [Check out the YouTube video, which is […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: Popsicle sticks and masking tape

by cv harquail May 8, 2009

International Au Pair Appreciation Week As shared by a Host Mom for her family Why do we appreciate our au pair so much? Our AP is beloved by both my kids. They are five years apart and so have very different world views and needs, yet she is able to have a great time on […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: Setting a high standard

by cv harquail May 6, 2009

International Au Pair Appreciation Week As shared by a Host Mom Johanna was our first aupair, and set a really high standard for what we would hope for from the aupairs that would follow. She showed incredible judgment in choosing which aupairs to spend time with, and often chose to stick close to our family. […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: All this, and a friend too

by cv harquail May 1, 2009

International Au Pair Appreciation Week As shared by a Host Mom I am the very proud mother of three children, ages 10, 9 and 2. My older two were adopted three years ago from Torosovo, Russia. They came from a background of extreme poverty, abuse and neglect, and as older adopted children, the transition to […]

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Advice wanted: My AuPair prefers the infant, won’t interact with the 6 yr old

by cv harquail April 30, 2009

I need some advice. Our Aupair pretty much ignores my 6 year old daughter. She takes care of my 7 month old son but hardly interacts with my daughter. Her interaction is limited to telling her what to do [like brush her teeth] and what she should not be doing [no talking since the baby […]

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When you are available and your Au Pair is ‘on duty’ — how to manage?

by cv harquail April 16, 2009

Anything She Can Do, I Can Do Better.... on Flickr - Photo Sharing!_1231092697748.jpeg

Caveat: This is NOT a post about (1) when you work at home and your au pair is on duty, [post for another day] or (2) when you are absolutely off duty and she is on duty…[post from earlier today]. This one is about: When you both are at home and available to the kids— […]

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Make your home a nest of creativity

by cv harquail March 19, 2009

Perhaps one of the most useful bits of advice for managing an au pair relationship is "be creative". Creative in terms of how you see things, how you respond to challenges, how you integrate your priorities and your au pair’s abilities, and how you develop a relationship between your kids and your au pair. It […]

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Terms of Endearment and Moms’ Deepest Fears. Also, Childcare Myths.

by cv harquail March 12, 2009

Over in the Skribit feature, as a suggested topic, an anonymous person asked “How to deal with the fact that the child calls the Au Pair ‘mom’.” When I first saw this topic suggestion, I planned to ignore it. I wasn’t sure it was from a real host mom. Honestly, how many times have you […]

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