When your personal, private challenges affect your Au Pair relationship

by cv harquail September 23, 2009
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Often on this blog we talk about what’s happening between you and your au pair as the source of difficulties– but sometimes the difficulty is all of our own making. Things happen to us host parents — grandparents die, host parents divorce, someone loses a job, a parent gets hospitalized, a child is challenged, and […]

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Male Au Pairs: When would you hire one? (Poll)

by cv harquail September 22, 2009
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Have you ever thought about hiring a male au pair? I haven’t considered it, since I have two girls and I’m looking for positive young women as role models…. but one of my girlfriends has a male au pair for their two sons, and she’s found that a male au pair has been just as […]

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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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3 Questions to Ask Yourself as Rematch Approaches

by cv harquail September 16, 2009
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We received an email from a host mom who unintentionally became a doormat, and who wonders whether she should consider rematching. Since I feel confident at how you all will respond once your read her email (a link to which appears below), I thought instead we might consider how, when facing a rematch, we can […]

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How did I become a doormat?

by cv harquail September 16, 2009
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Hello. I have been reading Au Pair mom website since we got our first Au Pair from Brazil in Feb 2009. She is 19 years old. We have 22 month old twins. My husband works out of the home for the most part and I work some from home and some away from home. My […]

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How do we know when it’s time to give up?

by cv harquail September 9, 2009
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Our first 2 Au Pairs were fantastic … but we are having a hard time bonding with #3. She initially had difficulty keeping our 2 boys (age 5), and focused on activities rather than wrestling but seems to be improving in that area (very slowly)… However, getting her to talk to us or the kids […]

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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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You and the Flu

by cv harquail September 7, 2009

Get vaccinated ?Time to get over your “But I hate shots!” whining and ranting. Educate yourself on available vaccinations, talk with your doctor, and view the CDC website. They have vaccination information here. Wash your hands and use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. ?Giving high-fives should be a safe and friendly sport. I used to think […]

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The Boyfriend-Back-Home: Always bad news?

by cv harquail September 1, 2009
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We got an interesting request for advice from a host mom who just found out that her incoming au pair has gotten a BBH — a Boyfriend-Back-Home. This mom is concerned because her first au pair – host mom experience was marred by her au pair’s devotion to the BBH over her commitment to the […]

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Conflicting Foodstyles: Advice for an Au Pair

by cv harquail August 31, 2009
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Can someone advise me? I have been an au pair for 2 weeks and the family are really nice. The problem is the food. They have 6 kids and so they only buy cheap food like pasta and bread. Sometimes all we have for dinner is vegetables. I am desperate for some protien, but they […]

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