First time Host Parent

Au Pair Mom’s Mothers’ Day Challenge

by cv harquail May 8, 2010
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The annual celebration of Mothers’ Day offers us moms a chance to have breakfast in bed, or experience some other kind of treat from our family. It’s one particular day that we get a bit of positive feedback for the work that we do as moms, and it’s one day that we get to be […]

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Christmas Tip: Make sure your Au Pair has a stocking

by cv harquail December 10, 2009
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If you are a first-time host family, and if you celebrate Christmas, you might find yourself caught off guard when you begin to incorporate your Au Pair into your family traditions. Some families will want their au pair to help select and decorate the tree, others won’t. Some families will invite the au pair to […]

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Calendar Advice from CalifMom

by cv harquail August 10, 2009

A treat from Calif Mom! Knowing that I’d be away from the blog (for a little longer than I’d planned) Calif Mom sent us a present: a guest post on calendars! Here’s her advice, with the usual blend of wisdom and wit! cv Dorsi mentioned Google Calendar in a comment advising a host mom who […]

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Starting out on the right foot, when you’re on maternity leave

by cv harquail June 2, 2009
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We’ve talked a bit about how to start out with an au pair, and it seems that in general, we think that the best strategy is to get her working right away. This helps your au pair feel needed, distracts her from homesickenss, helps with training, and ramps all of the family up fairly quickly. […]

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Au Pair Advice: Can we get her to speak the right language with the kids?

by cv harquail May 21, 2009
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Sing me Spanish techno? This just in from Madrid!!  A host mom with a different kind of language challenge! Just about every host family- au pair relationship I know of feels some kind of communication challenge… and these are always exacerbated when the host family and au pair grew up speaking different languages.  But this […]

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Choosing an Au Pair: Using email to reach out to a candidate

by cv harquail May 14, 2009
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Once you’ve found a candidate that interests you and you have her contact information, you need to establish contact reach out to her.  I’ve found that an email is a great way to start the conversation. (If she does not haves an email address, go to the phone pronto.) An email can "warm up" a […]

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Advice Wanted: How to set the right tone from Week 1

by cv harquail May 13, 2009
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OK experienced host moms (and dads), I need some of your advice. Although I have had three Au Pairs, they have all ended in transition so I feel like a new host mother. Since this is the first time I am going into the AP relationship with the aid of other mothers as mentors, I […]

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How to choose between two good candidates? Offer your opinion…

by cv harquail April 24, 2009
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When folks ask for advice about their au pair, don’t you just wish sometimes you could go back with them to the very beginning, back when they were deciding what kind of au pair to choose? And you could tell them just what you think they should do? It could be just like in a […]

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3 Ways to be a Great Host Parent

by cv harquail April 14, 2009
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Here’s the first in an occasional series about Ways to be a Great Host Parent . Sorry Tolstoy. Whether happy or not so happy, not every host family is the same.  We host families like to revel in our uniqueness and we like to think that, for the lucky au pair, our family is just […]

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Share a page from your handbook …

by cv harquail February 10, 2009
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When I started au pair momming 11 years ago, there was no such thing as an Au Pair Handbook. My au pair agency never recommended that I create a family manual, and my LCC actually laughed when I told her that I’d put together a printed list of guidelines for our incoming au pair. My, […]

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