Checklists

Back to School – How to Ease the Transition by TexasHM

by Texas HM August 8, 2018

Can you believe it’s that time of year again?!  If you are anything like me, in spite of how awesome my kids are about this time every year I am counting the days back to school (and the routine it brings back into our household)!  So how can host parents and au pairs work together to […]

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Share Your Schedules for Training Your AuPair — The First Week

by cv harquail April 3, 2016
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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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Texas Host Mom’s 12 Step Au Pair Matching Process (guest post)

by Texas HM June 6, 2015
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Here’s TexasHM’s step-by-step matching process: 1. Send email template #1 (open ended AP questions) Review email #1 answers and decide go/no go  Send email template #2 and area links/info email (our explanations and area)  Review email #2 answers and decide go/no go  Skype session #1, review AP application and ask Skype questions list, mutually decide […]

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Classic Case: Should we keep trying with a Mediocre Au Pair?

by cv harquail March 4, 2014
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Here’s a situation we see time and time again on AuPairMom: The family has an au pair (often, their first one) and the au pair is only okay. The au pair’s relationship with the kids is “fine”, but the au pair doesn’t follow through on her other responsibilities. The host parents have tried a few […]

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When Your Au Pair Won’t Do More Than Mind Your Child: Child Care Chores

by cv harquail January 12, 2013

How do you teach an au pair that ‘childcare’ includes more than just caring directly for your child/ren, in real time? We all know that childcare means not only one-to-one interacting with the child and the child’s needs, but also doing child-related work ‘offline’. But many au pairs (especially new ones) struggle with this, because […]

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Daily Checklists & Logs: Two examples

by cv harquail April 1, 2011
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A while back I asked if any of you had forms, checklists, or other organizing tools that you’d like to share with AuPairMom readers… and several of you (who are better organized that I) sent some in. Just a few days ago, I got a request from Talliecat: My friend has a very… shall we […]

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Have a 9-11 Plan for your family and your au pair

by cv harquail March 14, 2011
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(First published on 9.11.09.  Republished with original comments.) Thinking about ‘lessons’ from 9-11 can often be heartbreaking, especially in my community where so many of us lost family, friends and co-workers in the WTC attacks. It’s almost disrespectful to bring up the idea of a “9-11” plan, but maybe thinking ahead about how we might […]

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When should we send our Family Handbook to our incoming au pair?

by cv harquail January 6, 2011
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As every reader of this blog knows, we are big fans of the concept of the Family Handbook. And by “we” I don’t mean the royal  moi, but all of us host parents (and even au pairs). It really helps to create a handbook to get your expectations and needs out into clear language, and […]

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Help Your New Au Pair Pack: 5 things to bring, 5 things to leave behind

by cv harquail July 9, 2010
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West Coast Mom suggests that we pool our collective wisdom to generate a packing list for our incoming au pairs.  This list would not include the basics (they’ll all think to pack underwear). Instead, this list would cover wht an au pair needs to bring to support her or his adventure. What we pack reflects […]

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R.T.F.M. Making sure your Au Pair Reads the Family Manual

by cv harquail September 17, 2009
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Long before there was OMG, ROTFLMAO and WTF, there was RTFM. R ead T he F (your favorite F word here. We use “family”) M anual We put a lot of work into those family manuals and handbooks, and we expect them to be useful to our Au Pairs. However, before the Au Pairs find […]

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