Food: meals, eating, diets, nutrition

Eating Out at Restaurants: Advice for Host Families and Au Pairs

by cv harquail November 11, 2010

Our rocking, sane and helpful conversation about all things related to food at home has emboldened me (and maybe you) to tackle a specific food situation– eating out at restaurants. I’m thinking about the evenings when no one has the energy to cook and you’re tired of pizza, or when you’re dining ‘on the road’ […]

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Why is managing food for an Au Pair so hard?

by cv harquail November 8, 2010

Why do we have so many comments, questions and challenges with this one? We already know that: food is love food is cultural healthy food is important we must distinguish between everyday food and special food we need to be explicit if any foods are off limits to the au pair we need to allow […]

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Food and your Au Pair: A smorgasbord of advice

by cv harquail November 8, 2010

Food and Your Au Pair Food and your Au Pair: Label it if you don’t want her to eat it Our AP’s appetite is so big, we can’t afford to feed her! Groceries: How much ‘extra’ can your Au Pair ask you to buy? Who pays for what? Locking the Refrigerator, and other ways to […]

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5 Tips to Help Your Au Pair Prepare Healthy Meals for Kids

by cv harquail September 29, 2010

Sometimes, I get really envious of host families whose au pairs know how to cook. I mean really know how to cook– au pairs who will suggest meals, create something new out of a chicken breast, and clip a recipe from People Magazine. We have never had an au pair who is an accomplished cook, […]

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Au Pairs and Dinnertime: Preparing in advance for a smooth routine

by cv harquail August 18, 2010

Mealtimes are important family times. Most of us hope that our Au Pairs will join us for dinner so that s/he can be part of this family time. But as we know, food and mealtimes can easily become places where individual differences, cultural differences, and just plain organization can get in the way of a […]

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When your Au Pair has an eating disorder

by cv harquail March 25, 2010

Every au pair we’ve ever had (all 11 of them) went on some weird kind of diet. These diets included protein drinks, Slimfast shakes, grapefruits, Diet Cokes for breakfast & lunch and — my personal favorite — rice and bread. (Going without butter was where ya really saved on calories!) Thankfully, most of these diets […]

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Who pays for what?

by cv harquail September 7, 2009

Sometimes the concept of treating an au pair like a ‘member of the family’ doesn’t give you enough guidance. This seems especially true when it comes to figuring out ‘who pays for what, when’. We got a request (using the Skribit feature) for a post that would heolp to establish some guidelines for this. I’ve […]

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Conflicting Foodstyles: Advice for an Au Pair

by cv harquail August 31, 2009

Can someone advise me? I have been an au pair for 2 weeks and the family are really nice. The problem is the food. They have 6 kids and so they only buy cheap food like pasta and bread. Sometimes all we have for dinner is vegetables. I am desperate for some protien, but they […]

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Our AP’s appetite is so big, we can’t afford to feed her!

by cv harquail July 7, 2009

Looks can be deceiving. Many of us have been surprised to discover that the petite young woman who is our Au Pair is actually a bottomless pit or a fledgling linebacker, in terms of how much she can eat. Obviously, no one wants to starve her au pair– part of what we provide for our […]

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Groceries: How much ‘extra’ can your Au Pair ask you to buy?

by cv harquail July 3, 2009

As part of our conversations about grocery shopping, food, costs, and being ‘part of the family’, many of us have mentioned that we invite or allow our au pairs to add items to the family grocery list, which we then pay for out of our family budget. Usually, we do this to accommodate our au […]

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