Vacations

Help Your Au Pair Plan for a Fun Summer

by cv harquail June 17, 2012
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As per usual, the summer has snuck up on me. Even though Target is already setting up the ‘back to school’ supplies display, I still haven’t gotten all the swimsuits and suncreen out of storage. And this week marks the last day of school! Thank goodness we have only one week of unstructured vacation days […]

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Tips for Taking Baby and Au Pair on a Business Trip

by cv harquail May 30, 2012

What can you do to make it easier on you, your au pair and your baby when you all take a business trip together? I’m a first time host mom who’s going to be taking her au pair with her on a business trip with my 8 month old daughter. My au pair understands that […]

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Vacationing at DisneyWorld with your Au Pair in Tow: What’s worked for you?

by cv harquail March 5, 2012
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I have a confession to make. My kids are 11 and 13, and I have never taken them to DisneyWhere. I probably never will. I know, it doesn’t count that I *have* taken them to see WIcked on Broadway– I’m still a bad mom. Worse, I don’t know much about the excitements and demands of […]

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Should au pair rules be changed, to allow for “extra vacation without pay”?

by cv harquail January 25, 2012
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Within the legal boundaries of the au pair program, both host parents and au pairs like to have a bit of personal discretion. We want to be able to satisfy family demands and any sensible au pair dreams. We want to be flexible when issues come up, and we want to be accommodating and reasonably […]

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Establishing Expectations when an Au Pair Has Guests

by cv harquail November 30, 2011

There’s something about hosting a friend of relative of your au pair that can mess with the fine balance between “part of the family”&  “childcare provider” and between “host mom” and “house elf/slave”. For lots of us, we forget to check our assumptions about how we should act towards other people’s guests, how much of […]

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Take Advantage of Your Summer Re-Sets: Revise expectations

by cv harquail June 27, 2011
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Every year, I know it’s coming, but I’m never ready when it arrives… I’m not talking about Christmas (though, I could be). I’m talking about summer recess. Vacation for your school kids, and a new routine for everyone Last Weds. was my kids’ first day of summer recess, and already I’m going crazy. All those […]

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Travel Outside the USA … Paperwork-related cautionary tale

by cv harquail May 10, 2011
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Sometimes no matter how many different sources we check, we don’t get enough information to make international travel with our au pairs go without a hitch. JamaicaMom sent this story, and wonders if there was some stone she left unturned, some box she failed to check, some egg that failed to hatch, some colloqualisim that […]

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How risky is it to travel when her J-1 Visa is soon to expire?

by cv harquail March 17, 2011
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Smart Risks vs. Risky Risks Everything is risky, including traveling with your au pair outside of the US while she is on a J-1 visa. We know from previous conversations that even though a visa may still be valid, a customs person could deny your au pair re-entry into the USA. But how real is […]

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Traveling Together — Managing your Au Pair’s independence and Safety

by cv harquail January 18, 2011
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Dear AuPairMom Readers– I would love the input of some other host families regarding our upcoming cruise vacation with our Au Pair. We have never done a vacation like this with an AP and I am concerned about how best to make it work. Going along on the cruise are me (Host Mom), my husband, […]

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Am I being unfair if I move on, and find another au pair?

by cv harquail November 20, 2010
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Here’s a request for some of your host parent wisdom: I am in need of opinions as to whether or not I am being unfair to our au pair. We have had the pleasure of hosting a delightful young woman for 1 year and we both agreed to a year-long extension. We have been pleased […]

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