Training/teaching

Help: My Au Pair is Blogging about My Family!

by cv harquail January 11, 2009

pandorasbox.jpg (JPEG Image, 350x263 pixels)_1231704977628

It’s s Web 2.0 nightmare no Au Pair Host Parent is ready for — your au pair is blogging about your kids, your family, your discipline strategies, and who knows what all else. And the picture is not altogether flattering. What do you do? Here’s how md describes her challenge and her request for advice: […]

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15 Tips from 15 Host Moms

by cv harquail January 5, 2009

Cruising through the comments and wincing at the many that I haven’t answered adequately, I was reminded how many little tidbits you all have been sharing on the blog. It can be overwhelming to provide advice for a knotty problem, or for a first timer, because there really is so much to share. Funny thing […]

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9 Host Mom Questions for 2009: Reflect before you resolve

by cv harquail December 31, 2008

How did we get here already? I was just testing the polling feature to see how many au pairs were on duty on Christmas, and — bam– it’s already December 31st. Maybe the holidays have been like this for you too? Just more family, more fun, (more work!), and overall less blogging time than I’d […]

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How much should you tip your Au Pair at Christmas?

by cv harquail December 12, 2008

If you celebrate Christmas and if you don’t, the quote-unquote Holidays are a time of year when many people think about giving, some people think about getting, and most of us think about both. If you were to search for information about Christmas Tips for au pairs, you’d discover that the commonly-advised amount is "one […]

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Christmas Tip: Tell your Au Pair what your family believes about Santa

by cv harquail December 12, 2008

Three Wise Monkeys (Oops, I Mean Three Silly Reindeer) by Pink Sherbet Photography.

Don’t put your au pair in that awful situation of being the person who blows Santa’s secret. Explain to your au pair how your family talks about the man in the red suit, what he does, and what he means. Help her understand your way of discussing the Santa phenomenon, so that she can coordinate […]

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Can This Relationship Be Saved?: Host Dad’s au pair is causing problems for me, in my house

by cv harquail November 20, 2008

Arguing, au pair advice, low cost childcare

Host moms–your advice is needed on this one– and it’s a pretty unique situation. There are THREE relationships — maybe even four– in this request for advice. Relationship 1: Between the writer and the au pair , Relationship 2: Between the au pair and the Host Dad, and Relationship 3: Between the writer and the […]

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Tip: Teach your Au Pair about Vampires

by cv harquail October 31, 2008

vampire bill compton au pair aupair advice

Special Halloween Edition Every Host Mom should teach her au pair about vampires. No, I don’t mean the Bill Compton kind of vampire, I mean the bill ELECTRIC kind of vampire. [If you want to know more about Bill Compton, check these vids: "I’m Too Sexy…" (almost NSFW) or "Talking in Your Sleep." Apparently, these […]

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How Can You Get Your Au Pair to be (more of) a Self-Starter?

by cv harquail October 6, 2008

Moms- We’ve got another request for advice! Not so surprisingly, this request shares a theme with last week’s question, about how to get your au pair ‘out and about’ so that you can have some alone-ish time. I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting some of the passages to call your attention to them… What are […]

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When your Au Pair has a Fender-Bender — Who pays, and what, and how?

by cv harquail September 24, 2008

I have dreaded writing about au pairs and car accidents, because fear of accidents is one of the scariest things about having children, and even scarier when you are entrusting your children to someone else’s driving. Even the best of au pairs can have car accidents. (Heck, even the best of drivers can have accidents!) […]

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After the Car Accident: Advice on what to talk about with your Au Pair

by cv harquail September 19, 2008

As I was working through the possible advice we could offer to MT, the mom whose Au Pair just backed into a BMW, I realized that we need to focus on the really big picture– that is, how to manage the damage that an Au Pair’s car accident can do to your relationship with each […]

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