Common Challenges

Taking An Au Pair on Vacation: Hotel Room Arrangements

by cv harquail April 9, 2015

Already looking forward to your summer vacation? If you’re planning to bring your Au Pair, now is the time to start talking about vacation arrangements –especially how you plan to manage hotel rooms. Au Pairs should be provided with their own private room to sleep in — that’s what the Agencies require. The Agencies require […]

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Why Your Au Pair Should Go To Your Kid’s School Play …

by cv harquail March 15, 2015

… and all sorts of other family events. If having an Au Pair is a Cultural Exchange, school and community events are an important part of the excitement. Hey, I’ve endured enjoyed enough grammar school orchestra concerts to be an expert on ways to butcher the violin parts of The Str Spangled Banner. But if […]

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Helping Au Pairs Teach Second-Languages to Kids

by cv harquail March 12, 2015

Does anyone feel like s/he’s cracked the nut on having an au pair help teach a child a second language? Many host parents chose au pairs with this goal in mind, knowing these key things: Au Pairs also need to speak English so that they can achieve their language learning goals Few Au Pairs are taught […]

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When Your Au Pair Complains About A Fair Schedule

by cv harquail March 9, 2015

File this under: “Grrrrrr.” You are a lovely family with an adorable child. You offer a reasonably cushy schedule to your au pair. Most days it’s 2 hours in the morning and 4- 4 1/2 in the afternoon/evening. You go out some weeks nights here and there, to book club or (gasp) to the gym. And […]

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Fun Au Pair Activities for Monthly Cluster Meetings– ideas?

by cv harquail March 8, 2015

Dear AuPairMom and Readers– I enjoy reading the blog and learning from all your advice. I wonder if we could crowd-source some ideas? Our Au Pair Community Counselor is a lovely person, but sometimes she seems a little out of touch with what Au Pairs might think is fun or useful. Our Counselor […]

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What if an Au Pair Doesn’t Want To Take Antibiotics– and we’re all sick!

by cv harquail February 23, 2015

HostMomX raised this concern in the comments on the post about Dr. Host Dad and his Vitamin B injections: This situation brings up a related issue that HD and I have wondered about. We have had several APs tell us that they are very anti antibiotic, and won’t take them. I understand that attitude – I […]

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Our Au Pair Was Unhappy. Everyone Knew But Us.

by cv harquail February 21, 2015

Dear Au Pair Mom — I have just discovered that our first au pair, who departed three months ago after a year working and traveling with us, told *everyone* but me that she was unhappy with our family. We though she was the greatest au pair: hard worker, experienced with the kids, wise… She seemed […]

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Au Pair’s Dr. Host Dad insisting she receive Vitamin B shots? No. No. No.

by cv harquail February 19, 2015

This particular pair of host parents wins the prize for “Most Invasive Expectations”. I received an email from an au pair currently working in Europe. She writes: Hi AuPairMom– I don’t know any other au pairs and so I’m hoping to get some advice from you on this difficult situation. I have been living with […]

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When Your Au Pair’s Efforts to Help Just Make Things Worse

by cv harquail February 10, 2015

You know it’s a sad story when it begins … “One weekend in an effort to emulate Martha Stewart…” … I lovingly planted thyme in between the flagstones of my back patio. My plan was for the herbs to fill in the dirt lines, crowd out the weeds, and offer up a fragrance when we walked around […]

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Teach Your Kids To Treat Your Au Pair With Respect

by cv harquail January 30, 2015

Here’s a host mom after my own heart. Why? Because her first thought after describing the problem is to ask what she might be doing to contribute to it. Not that I want host parents (or au pairs) to always shoulder the blame, but with all things social it’s the *relationship, the *context, and the […]

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