Having another baby? How to tell your au pair

by cv harquail July 12, 2010
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[First in a multi-part series on New Babies & Au Pairs: Sharing the Good News… ] It’s great news for you and your partner when you discover that you’re having another baby — and it’s just the kind of news you want to share with your au pair thoughtfully. Having a baby changes things, and […]

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New Babies and Au Pairs: A Series

by cv harquail July 12, 2010
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When a new baby joins your family, lots and lots of things change… and all these changes can affect your au pair. Coming up is a short series of posts on New Babies and Au Pairs, where we can share ideas about how to welcome the new baby (or babies) and also how to welcome […]

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Parents, do you share this site with your Au Pair?

by cv harquail July 9, 2010
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How many of you host parents share the URL of this blog with your current au pairs? Or send them copies of posts using ShareThis or email? How many of you hope to the good lord that your au pair will *never* stumble across this conversation? Inquiring minds want to know, so without further ado: […]

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Help Your New Au Pair Pack: 5 things to bring, 5 things to leave behind

by cv harquail July 9, 2010
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West Coast Mom suggests that we pool our collective wisdom to generate a packing list for our incoming au pairs.  This list would not include the basics (they’ll all think to pack underwear). Instead, this list would cover wht an au pair needs to bring to support her or his adventure. What we pack reflects […]

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From “Part Time” to “Full Time”: Can I ramp up my au pair’s hours over time?

by cv harquail July 7, 2010
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Dear AuPairMom, I’m a mom, employed part-time, who is thinking about getting an au pair. I’m thinking of having an au pair to (1) care for my kids while I’m working, (2) work with me as a mother’s helper as I care for the children, and (3) make it possible to get other things done […]

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Swimming, Personal Choices and Cultural Norms

by cv harquail July 5, 2010
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A request for advice from “Everybody In The Pool” — Dear Au Pair Mom readers, An issue has arisen with our new au pair (arrived 2 weeks ago) – and it’s not one I anticipated. I’m hoping AuPairMom readers have some thoughts and insights… It’s a cultural issue and also a personal issue. It is […]

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What’s the most “American” thing you’ve had to explain to your au pair?

by cv harquail July 2, 2010
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4th of July is one of my favorite holidays… all about family, community and abstract patriotic notions. 4th of July is also the holiday when I am most likely to embarrass my children– apparently, as they get older, it is no longer cool to dress up in red, white & blue and cheer wildly at […]

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Use Everyday Math Skills to calulate our rematch percentage

by cv harquail July 1, 2010

Rather than wait until I find a polling tool that can divide as well as count, let’s use our everyday match skills to get a sense of the percentage of rematches AMONG AuPairMom readers. [Remember, this is a poll of the special group of host parents that reads AuPairMom. Our results will not be the […]

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When Your Host Mom is a Stripper

by cv harquail July 1, 2010
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Host moms and dads have a lot of interesting occupations, and habits. On this blog, we’ve got police officers, massage therapists, teachers, managers, writers, dog breeders, and more. But up until this comment, below, I never thought any of us host parents … well, here’s the comment: This isn’t really to ask for advice, more […]

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Have you ever regretted that you initiated a rematch?

by cv harquail June 29, 2010
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A host mom emailed to get my opinion on whether or not to go into rematch. This host mom and her family have a less-than-great au pair, one who is kind but can’t seem to complete tasks. Who is on time but ultimately not reliable. And, she’s not very smart. She’s so ‘not smart’ that […]

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