Your Host Parent approach

Choosing an Au Pair: How to Avoid a Princess

by cv harquail September 26, 2009
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If only it were as easy as sticking a green vegetable underneath her mattress and waiting to see if she gets a good night’s sleep… We all want to avoid “the princess” – the au pair candidate who thinks the job is all about visiting the States, living in an American home, and having an […]

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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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Who pays for what?

by cv harquail September 7, 2009
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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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“No Room at the Inn” because AP changed her plans. Now what? (Poll)

by cv harquail August 22, 2009
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My au pair’s vacation is coming up. To cover for her, we’re having both sets of grandparents come stay over. They’ll be here for a month, but will overlap for a little over a week. The overlap will occur while the AP is on vacation. We have a smallish house – 3 bedrooms. Our “guest […]

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Mad Money: Every girl should have some

by cv harquail August 20, 2009
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Family lore has it that my grandfather, a WASP of few words, gave my mom three pieces of advice when she went off to college: Hotels always have clean ladies’ rooms. A Brandy Alexander is an appropriate cocktail for a young lady. Every young lady should have some mad money. Notwithstanding how odd these three […]

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Gossip Girls: When your AP tells stories, what can you do?

by cv harquail August 18, 2009
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Researchers in my field of organizational behavior&theory have found that gossip in organizations provides some useful functions, like lubricating relationships, creating interpersonal bonds, allowing people to express their fears, and perhaps most important, offering people an informal way to make sense of what’s going on around them. While it may be that gossip at work […]

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Can you dock her pay if she owes you money? Poll

by cv harquail August 14, 2009

Are there any situations when it’s fair for you to withhold or ‘dock’ your au pair’s pocket money? We skirted around this issue in a previous conversation about when your au pair refuses to work, but never answered it directly. Now, we’ve got a topic request (on Skribit) with a very specific situation: You AP […]

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Saying Goodbye to an Au Pair you Parents really love

by cv harquail July 8, 2009
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Last year I wrote a post about “Her Next Adventure”: Telling your kids that your Au Pair is leaving which elicited a lot of good advice for helping the children say goodbye to their au pair. We just got a request from a mom with a different version of the problem– a version which, if […]

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Part of the Family: The Au Pairs’ Perspective

by cv harquail July 2, 2009
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Okay Au Pairs– It’s your turn to chime in… and share the au pair side of the ‘part of the family’ equation. What does it mean to you to be "part of the family"? What do host families do that helps you feel "part of the family"? What do host families do that takes away […]

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Part of the Family: What does that mean to you?

by cv harquail July 1, 2009
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What does it really mean for your au pair to be "part of the family"? What do you do in your relationship with her that is different, if you treat her as "part of the family" versus if you don’t? Have you had the opportunity to compare the experience of a live-in caregiver who was […]

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