How much can an Au Pair influence the positive climate of your home?

by cv harquail October 13, 2014
evening in reykjavik

Add one negative person, and the whole ‘psychic weather system’ of a family can become depressed. Having an au pair who is a grump, a complainer, a depressive, a wet noodle, or a ghost can really be a drag on the family’s energy. But is an au pair’s impact on the family climate as powerful the […]

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3 Easy Ways to Help Your Au Pair Use Your Home Appliances Correctly

by cv harquail October 10, 2014
wash maching

American appliances have too many options. Having endless options is great for getting just the right setting for a specific task, but it becomes quite a problem when you’re forever trying to remember which combinations of buttons and levers to press. Between our vacuum cleaner (5 attachments, 3 wands and 5 buttons), our washer (23 […]

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LGBT Au Pairs: Have Host Parents’ thoughts changed on whether sexual orientation matters?

by cv harquail October 5, 2014
rainbow

Given the pace of changes in the US around issues of marriage equality and the recognition of trans* people, an au pair writes to ask whether Host Parents views have changed: I found one post about the topic from 2010. I am curious if something has changed for HF’s? I am gay but none knows […]

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One Slight After Another: Can this au pair relationship be saved?

by cv harquail September 29, 2014
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It’s interesting to get emails from host parents — and au pairs– where it seems that the very act of writing to us is helping them gain some clarity about how untenable their situation actually is. This seems especially true when there isn’t one prominent issue but instead several smaller ones that, when all pulled […]

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Au Pairs Should Use Language that Host Kids Can Understand

by cv harquail September 23, 2014
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Many families look for au pairs who can help their children learn a language other than English. The idea is that the au pair can speak to the child in the au pair’s first language, and teach the child the second language through everyday interactions. Conceptually, this makes sense. We do, after all, learn our […]

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It’s the Parents’ Job to Teach Children Kind Behavior

by cv harquail September 18, 2014
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Au Pairs can reinforce discipline and expectations, but it’s Parents who remain responsible. Many parents who are either new to parenting at all or new to host parenting specifically struggle with this issue. We all want our children to be kind. Full stop. (I’m assuming this is true. It’s true, right? We want our kids […]

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If an AuPair is being exploited, is it okay for her to disappear?

by cv harquail September 15, 2014
girl with suitcase1

We’ve heard the horror stories of au pairs disappearing while the host family is at church, or in the middle of the night without warning. Although this is often selfish behavior by an au pair and intended as a slap in the face to the host parents, there are actually a few situations where I […]

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How to Get Your Au Pair Ready To Cook

by cv harquail September 12, 2014
bagel

Once your host kids get past the ‘oatmeal and smashed peas’ phase, it’s time for an Au Pair to do some real cooking. Even au pairs who’ve cooked in their home countries find cooking in America to be a bit challenging. Au Pairs need to figure out: How our appliances work What each of the foods […]

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Smelly House: Host Mom Hates Air Fresheners

by cv harquail September 11, 2014
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Attention readers: This second post about smells and host parents is absolutely unrelated to the previous post.  The Au Pair in the first post and the Au Pair here are not the same person, and the host parents aren’t the same people. It was coincidence that TACL brought up this issue last week….I already had […]

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My Host Family’s House is Smelly. What should I do?

by cv harquail September 10, 2014
good air

Everyone’s house has a smell. Sometimes it’s “dog”, sometimes it’s “curry” and sometimes it’s just “ick”. We don’t usually notice the everyday smell of our own home because we’re accustomed to it. But when our au pairs walk in for the first time, they notice because the smell is new to them. Over time, they […]

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