Common Challenges

How much should you tip your Au Pair at Christmas?

by cv harquail December 12, 2008

If you celebrate Christmas and if you don’t, the quote-unquote Holidays are a time of year when many people think about giving, some people think about getting, and most of us think about both. If you were to search for information about Christmas Tips for au pairs, you’d discover that the commonly-advised amount is "one […]

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Christmas Tip: Tell your Au Pair what your family believes about Santa

by cv harquail December 12, 2008

Three Wise Monkeys (Oops, I Mean Three Silly Reindeer) by Pink Sherbet Photography.

Don’t put your au pair in that awful situation of being the person who blows Santa’s secret. Explain to your au pair how your family talks about the man in the red suit, what he does, and what he means. Help her understand your way of discussing the Santa phenomenon, so that she can coordinate […]

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Food and your Au Pair: Label it if you don’t want her to eat it

by cv harquail December 9, 2008

Do you know what it feels like to spend two precious hours baking several dozen homemade cookies for your daughter’s class party, only to discover the next day, when you go to wrap them, that your au pair and her friends have eaten all but 6? That’s about how I felt last week, when an […]

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Tip: Family Fun for Thanksgiving

by cv harquail November 21, 2008

thanksgiving au pair celebrating, blogs about au pairs

20 Fun Things You Can Do with Family on Thanksgiving Hi Host moms— I found this great list of ideas for Thanksgiving on the DumbLittleMan Tips for Life blog. It’s such a great list that there is no way to summarize it and do it justice, so I’m excerpting it in large chunks… but if […]

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Can This Relationship Be Saved? Should It Be? Your Host Mom advice wanted….

by cv harquail November 18, 2008

disgruntled au pair, resentful, au pair advice, low cost childcare

Hi Moms- Just got this request for advice from another mom– It’s one of those questions that I find especially vexing: Can this relationship be saved? And, even before that, Should it be? What do you think? Here’s the story: I’m having a personality conflict with my au pair and am really unsure as to […]

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Tip: It is Probably Better NOT to Talk About Daniel Craig …

by cv harquail November 18, 2008

daniel craig, sex appeal, James Bond, 007, Moms, au pair advice

… with your Au Pair, or for that matter, when your Au Pair is nearby. Can you see why? And yes, Kathy, Jamie, Margot and Sarah, I’m talking to you. :-)

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Tip: Teach your Au Pair about Vampires

by cv harquail October 31, 2008

vampire bill compton au pair aupair advice

Special Halloween Edition Every Host Mom should teach her au pair about vampires. No, I don’t mean the Bill Compton kind of vampire, I mean the bill ELECTRIC kind of vampire. [If you want to know more about Bill Compton, check these vids: "I’m Too Sexy…" (almost NSFW) or "Talking in Your Sleep." Apparently, these […]

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Homesickness and your Au Pair: How you might help

by cv harquail October 15, 2008

Being an Au Pair’s host mom occasionally calls for you to help your au pair take care of herself, both physically and emotionally. You will find yourself needing to offer her ideas about how to distinguish between a cold and an allergy, how to find new friends, and almost certainly how to deal with homesickness. […]

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How Can You Get Your Au Pair to be (more of) a Self-Starter?

by cv harquail October 6, 2008

Moms- We’ve got another request for advice! Not so surprisingly, this request shares a theme with last week’s question, about how to get your au pair ‘out and about’ so that you can have some alone-ish time. I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting some of the passages to call your attention to them… What are […]

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Plan Ahead for the Holidays. How will your Au Pair celebrate with you?

by cv harquail October 1, 2008

I was just stunned to learn this morning that there are only 12 weeks until Christmas. 12 Weeks!!! While my Jewish friends have been celebrating their new year, I have been stumbling along oblivious to how quickly the fall has been flying by…. so thank goodness that blogger Tsh over at SimpleMom.com reminded me that […]

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