Cars, Phones & Computers

5 Ways to Assess an Au Pair’s Driving Skill when Choosing an Au Pair

by cv harquail November 4, 2010

The original title I had for this post was “In which we address, once again, the issue of driving skills”. However, since that’s neither SEO-friendly, nor really helpful, let’s see if we can actually come up with ways to assess driving skill. Everyone who has ever driving a car can call say that s/he’s an […]

33 comments Read the full article →

Checking Facebook for Insights About Your Au Pair’s Experience

by cv harquail October 13, 2010

Who needs to snoop in an au pair’s room or flip through an au pair’s journal, when there is Facebook to tell us our au pair’s inner thoughts? Not that any of us would intentionally snoop. (As we’ve already discussed, there are very few and very specific times when snooping seems even remotely reasonable.) And, […]

49 comments Read the full article →

Who Should Pay When an Au Pair Downloads Movies, Illegally, by Mistake?

by cv harquail October 4, 2010

We all have a sense of what kinds of issues regularly present host parents & au pairs with relationships challenges — food, cars, late nights being chief among these. I’m becoming aware of a new category of challenges, centering on ‘Who pays for a mistake?’ We’ve had mistakes related to car damage, lost cell phones, […]

31 comments Read the full article →

Integrating an Au Pair when your household has an Older Teen

by cv harquail September 27, 2010

If you have both little kids and an older Teen, what are the things you need to consider as you plan for your Au Pair? Carrie asks, because she and her husband are expecting a new baby, for whom she’d like an au pair caregiver. The challenge is that Carrie also has a son from a […]

11 comments Read the full article →

Should you get involved in another Host Parent’s Au Pair issue?

by cv harquail September 24, 2010

I promised you that there was a part 2 to the story of the au pair and host parents who were struggling with responsibility for damage to a car. That issue was shared with us by a host mom with a personal connection to the au pair. In addition to hoping for some ideas on […]

10 comments Read the full article →

When fault is contested, who pays for damage to the car?

by cv harquail September 21, 2010

Host Mom Ginger sent us a request for advice, that I’ll share with you in two pieces. The first piece has to do with a disagreement over how to pay for damage to the car the au pair uses: A host family has accused their au pair of having an accident with the car. She […]

49 comments Read the full article →

Driving, Comprehending and Bonding: Can this Au Pair relationship be saved?

by cv harquail August 30, 2010

Here’s a request for advice– and it is a long one… read through and offer your wisdom! Hi All, We are a first time host family of a lovely Au Pair from China. She has been here almost two weeks. She is neat, helpful, and eager; she is willing to learn how to work appliances, […]

114 comments Read the full article →

Managing Au Pair Transportation in the ‘Burbs: Ideas for this Host Mom?

by cv harquail August 27, 2010

Our previous two posts, Providing Your Au Pair With Safe, Affordable, Convenient Transportation , and Don’t Abuse A Cluster Taxi have been set-ups for this next question, from SanJoseMom. SanJoseMom is a first-time host parent and trying to organize her expectations and establish a foundation for a successful au pair year. Hi AuPairMom – I […]

65 comments Read the full article →

Don’t Abuse A Cluster Taxi

by cv harquail August 26, 2010

Within an au pair cluster, there are always some host families with relaxed car guidelines and even some families that don’t care at all what gets done with their au pair’s car. And, there are always some au pairs with significant constraints– their driving is bad, their host parents have only one car — and […]

21 comments Read the full article →

Providing Your Au Pair With Safe, Affordable, Convenient Transportation

by cv harquail August 25, 2010

Here on AuPairMom we get a lot of questions about driving skills, driving privileges and managing cars. Behind all of these questions, like “who should pay for gas?” or “Avoiding a sense of entitlement” or “keeping track of car use“, is one simple principle– Host parents must provide our au pairs with affordable, safe, and […]

30 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →