Common Challenges

3 Features of Au Pairing: Which One Challenges You?

by cv harquail September 1, 2014
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What are the real, important differences between Au Pairs and other kinds of childcare providers, like nannies, babysitters, or childcare centers? What really influences the challenges that host parents and au pairs face when it comes to making this ‘the best year ever’? It used to be that when people asked me how having an […]

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Flirting Au Pair Makes Life Awkward: Did we handle this well?

by cv harquail August 25, 2014
antiflirt club

Long-time AuPairMom readers know that we rarely discuss bad behavior between au pairs and male host parents, for two reasons:  There actually isn’t that much (especially compared to other kinds of problems), and Posts with certain words draw really creepy spammers that I hate to have to deal with. That said, there might be situations […]

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Do you ‘overshare’ or ‘undershare’ with your Au Pair?

by cv harquail August 21, 2014
overshare

I didn’t realized what a private creature I could be until we had our first au pair. With roommates it felt like nothing was off limits, and with my DH the main thing I kept closed was the bathroom door. But with au pairs? More of a challenge finding the right space between being closed and […]

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Creepy, Crawly, Contagious Things- What if your Au Pair catches them too?

by cv harquail July 27, 2014
Gdaisy hair

(Reposted from our archives, since an Au Pair Asked…) When I became a mom I knew that that I would need to become accustomed to dealing with things that, pre-motherhood, had completely grossed me out. I’m talking about poopy diapers, vomit, bloody noses, fart jokes, and public belching. These were things that I would have […]

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When a Host Family Takes Advantage of ‘Pitching In’

by cv harquail July 17, 2014
sink-dishes

Readers- Here’s the email that prompted my earlier post about defining what it means to “pitch in”. Clearly, someone in this Host Family has a different interpretation of what that means. Hi AuPairMom, I need your help in forming an opinion for my self regarding dishwashing. I am working with a family of 2 parents, […]

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“Pitching In”: What does that mean in your host family?

by cv harquail July 15, 2014
Print by OrangeTwist, available for purchase at Etsy

What does it mean to “pitch in” with host family chores? Pitching In (defn): To join the family in doing some everyday household upkeep, to help keep the household running smoothly In anticipation of an au pair question that will get posted later this week, I wanted to sketch out the basic advice (okay, my aupairmom […]

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Do you really want to know what your Au Pair is up to?

by cv harquail July 9, 2014
au pair, breaking rules, advice, secrets

‘Let me live in my fantasy world, where where Au Pairs drink only Diet Coke.’  This is what I’d say to Potential Tattletail AP. How about you? Dear AuPairMom-  I have a bit of a delicate question that I would love to get some feedback on from a HF perspective if possible.  I was an […]

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When Your New and Old Au Pairs Get Jealous of Each Other

by cv harquail July 6, 2014
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How hard is it to see the incoming au pair making connections with the kids, settling into the AuPair room, learning to drive in the USA, and talking about all she’s going to do in her year of adventure? If you’re the host mom, it’s not hard at all– you *want* to see this. But if […]

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Talking Politics With Your Au Pair

by cv harquail July 3, 2014
au pair, talking politics, aupair-mom

“Obama never should have taken the soldiers out of Iraq.” So opined my neighbor’s au pair, over dinner last week. “Obama let the Iraq people down, because he promised that the US would protect their freedom,” she continued. My neighbor choked on her caesar salad, fighting back the urge to scream “Stop watching Fox News!“ […]

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Bilingualism Benefits Young Brains … and older ones, too.

by cv harquail June 3, 2014
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From WarmStateMomma: For parents raising bilingual kids (or trying to) – I saw this article about a study on bilingualism: “Our study is the first to examine whether learning a second language impacts cognitive performance later in life while controlling for childhood intelligence,” said lead author Dr. Thomas Bak, of the University of Edinburgh, in […]

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