Cultural Exchange and Having an Au Pair

by cv harquail October 20, 2009
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Today I was interviewed by a journalist who is writing an article for a parenting magazine about the au pair hosting experience. One area she was very interested in was the idea of Au Pairs as a cultural exchange experience for the host kids. She wanted to know: How much of the host family experience […]

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My Au Pair Won’t Get a Flu Shot … and we have an Infant. Now what?

by cv harquail October 15, 2009
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There are several situations where getting a flu vaccine is a MUST— and one of those is if you care for a child under 6 months old. These littlest ones are uniquely vulnerable to both the regular flu and the H1N1 virus– because they are too young to be vaccinated themselves. Adults who care for […]

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Flu Shots for Your Au Pair: Polls

by cv harquail October 15, 2009

Let’s “take the temperature” of the AuPairMom community… and see what’s happening in your home about the flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine… 3 Reasons to Take Your Au Pair for a Flu Shot (AuPairMom.com)

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3 Reasons Having an Au Pair Has Been Great for My Family

by cv harquail October 14, 2009
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We just got this lovely email from Jane, helping to remind us of (just) 3 Reasons why au pairs are great! “Responding to your call for some positive blog posts, I’d like to share with the group some of my experiences that have made the au pair program worth the effort. I’ve had four good […]

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3 Reasons to Take Your Au Pair for a Flu Shot

by cv harquail October 14, 2009
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We’re talking regular flu here, the annual kind, the kind that killed over 24,000 people in the US last winter. [ H1N1 coming up in the next post.] Sure, lots of the people who died were already weak from other illnesses. But many who died were healthy until they got influenza. You don’t have to […]

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Good Bye, Good Luck from exAuPairMom

by cv harquail October 13, 2009
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I always wonder about “the rest of the story” when I get a notice that someone has unsubscribed from the email newsletter .. for the reason that “the content is no longer valid”. I usually take that to mean “we don’t have an au pair anymore”. Over the weekend we got this letter from a […]

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How to Handle Under-Age Drinking

by cv harquail October 7, 2009
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How do you handle it when you discover that your au pair has been out drinking, even though she is under the legal drinking age in your state? What if she has been out drinking with older au pairs? Or gone to a keg party at a local college? Or just bought some wine to […]

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Matching with an Au Pair: When Racism interferes

by cv harquail October 2, 2009
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Take a deep breath everyone– time to talk about something many people find uncomfortable: Racism.  But talk about it we must, because racism gets in the way of our relationships with each other. 3 Sources of “Racism Interference” Racism interference can come from three directions, any of which can influence your match with an Au […]

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Don’t break your own childcare rules

by cv harquail September 30, 2009
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Here’s a way to mess up your relationship with your au pair, your au pair’s relationship with your child(ren), and your child(ren)’s relationship with you, all at once: Break your own childcare rules. Have a rule that no candy can be eaten before dinner? How about not letting the kids watch tv before homework, or […]

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Share the Cream: Give your AP meaningful work to do

by cv harquail September 28, 2009
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One piece of advice my friend Adelaide gave me when we got our first au pair was “Share the Cream.” “Sharing the Cream” means sharing both the good parts (the cream) as well as the tough parts of a job or an experience. I don’t know where Adelaide came up with this saying, but it’s […]

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