First time Host Parent

Share Your Schedules for Training Your AuPair — The First Week

by cv harquail April 3, 2016

Looking over the many posts about getting started with an au pair, I made an interesting discovery: We have no posts with actual, recommended schedules. We have one really solid post from 2008 (!) where I list 5 strategies for orienting your au pair in the first week: 1. Start with the typical day’s tasks. […]

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Tips for a Nervous First Time Host Mom

by cv harquail March 16, 2016

Do you remember how excited you were, once you’d matched with your first au pair? Wondering what s/he’d really be like? How the kids would take to her/him? How you’d all get along? I myself was in a bit of a haze, getting ready to return to work from maternity leave, starting up classes again, […]

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Is Having Our First Au Pair Supposed To Be This Hard?

by cv harquail October 16, 2015

A brand new Host Mom writes to share her distress. Her Au Pair has been with them a whole two weeks now, and things haven’t fallen into place. Her toddler’s unsure about his new caregiver. The Host Mom’s unsure about how to coach the new Au Pair. The Au Pair’s unsure about how to […]

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How to Fix It When Your Au Pair Starts Out On The Wrong Foot

by cv harquail June 29, 2015

Four weeks in, and your Au Pair still isn’t doing what you’d expected. Worse, s/he’s not doing what you need. You’ve finished up her formal orientation and in-home training, but your Au Pair hasn’t stepped up to fill the role. Is there anything you can do? There are two kinds of early performance problems. The first […]

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Welcome Your Au Pair With a Fully-Stocked Bathroom

by cv harquail May 24, 2015

When your au pair arrives in your home, the way that you’ve prepared for their arrival can say a lot about how excited you are to get to know them. We’re all away of the basic things we should have ready — a clean, happy bedroom, a freshly printed handbook, a personalized map, a training schedule, […]

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Awkward Arrival Time But We Like This Au Pair — Should We Match or Move On?

by cv harquail January 15, 2015

We’re new to the AP process, currently interviewing for our first AP ever. I’m in academia, and was hoping for someone to start in July or August, so that they can get comfortable with my son (will be 3 years old in the Fall) before school starts back up in September. One issue is that […]

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Rules & Methods for Paying Your Au Pair

by cv harquail January 14, 2015

Paying your Au Pair her or his weekly stipend, on time and at the right amount, is critically important for sustaining a good au pair-host parent relationship. Your Au Pair is working hard at a real job, and s/he is earning that stipend. Plus, s/he probably has a lot of plans for using this money […]

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Is It This Particular Au Pair, or Is An Au Pair Just Not Right for Me?

by cv harquail December 31, 2014

Au Pairs “as a concept” and a particular au pair in real life are two very different things to imagine in your world. An Au Pair “as a concept” is the idea of a young adult living with you as part of the family and as an employee childcare provider, sharing your food, sharing your […]

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Should She Ask Her Host Mom To Read AuPairMom?

by cv harquail September 8, 2014

Dear AuPairMom – I have been reading AuPairMom while I was deciding to become an au pair and I was expecting that what you have on this blog explains what an au pair should expect. My host mom seems to be having some struggles with having an au pair. I’m my family’s first au pair. My family is […]

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Three Types of Host Moms: Which one are you?

by cv harquail August 15, 2014

I have a theory: Every new host mom starts off with a vision of herself as being one of three types: The Bestie, The SecondMom, or The Boss. The Bestie The Bestie is the host mom who wants to be her au pair’s good friend. She treats the au pair like a guest, buys her […]

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