Foundations & Basics

Our Au Pair Doesn’t Understand How Her Actions Affect Our Family

by cv harquail November 21, 2010

A regular reader sent me a long email about traveling with her Au Pair over the Christmas holiday. This reader is one of those very experienced, very thoughtful host moms who takes pains to see all sides of a situation, before doing her very best to be clear, constructive, and kind when she interacts with […]

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What if we don’t follow through to rematch, when we said we would?

by cv harquail November 19, 2010

One of the most important lessons I learned when my kids were toddlers, and one of the important lessons I’ve tried to impart to our au pairs, is that actions have consequences. If we said no drawing on the wall and you drew on the wall, well then you would not be able to use […]

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Reading the Fine Print: How do Au Pair Agency contracts differ?

by cv harquail November 16, 2010

With our previous conversation about whether or not an au pair is supposed to be paid pocket money if s/he takes additional vacation weeks, I was reminded of this very simple and confusing issue: Although US regulations apply to any US au pair, each agency has its own ways of interpreting and explaining the rules. […]

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Our Au Pair Wants More Vacation: How to handle?

by cv harquail November 13, 2010

Every au pair gets two weeks paid vacation, and the convention is to have the host family choose one week, while the au pair chooses the other, subject to family agreement. The host family has slightly more ‘say’ about vacation scheduling, simply because the host parents need to arrange for childcare while the au pair […]

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5 Ways to Assess an Au Pair’s Driving Skill when Choosing an Au Pair

by cv harquail November 4, 2010

The original title I had for this post was “In which we address, once again, the issue of driving skills”. However, since that’s neither SEO-friendly, nor really helpful, let’s see if we can actually come up with ways to assess driving skill. Everyone who has ever driving a car can call say that s/he’s an […]

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Options for Fulfulling the Au Pair Education Requirement: Online Classes?

by cv harquail October 29, 2010

Dear AuPairMoms: I’m a first-time host-parent to a lovely 21 year old first-time Au Pair from Scandinavia (through Cultural Care), as well as a first-time mom of 19 month old twins, and I really enjoy this site. I’m hoping your readers might have some sage advice for me. I’m starting to obsess over this issue, […]

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Halloween Party Safety Concerns for my Au Pair

by cv harquail October 28, 2010

Halloween is a favorite holiday of… just about everyone. I think it has become a quintessential American experience that every Au Pair should get involved in. But how should they get involved? Handing out candy at the house? Taking your kids out to trick or treat? Helping to make costumes? Or getting involved in the […]

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New baby, New Challenges for your Au Pair

by cv harquail October 19, 2010

When a new baby arrives, so do lots of new family dynamics. We’ve discussed so of these already, in the conversation about Having another baby? How to tell your au pair. But, we recently got this request from an au pair, who’d like some help in thinking about the challenges of a new baby in […]

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She extended, and left her enthusiasm behind…

by cv harquail October 9, 2010

Readers, we got this request from one of our regular contributors, who needs our advice this time… Her situation is long, and the story is complex, but I’m posting it all because (it seems to me) that the context matters. There are issues of schedule change, trauma in the Host Mom’s life, efforts to work […]

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Can you train an Au Pair to be conscious of safety?

by cv harquail October 7, 2010

Hi AuPairMom, I can’t believe I’m sending this email, but I am at my wit’s end and don’t quite know where else to turn. I’ve been lurking on your blog for about 3 months, ever since we decided that an au pair situation would be a good one for us (we’re first timers). Here’s a […]

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