The Worst Thing an Au Pair Can Overhear

by cv harquail March 17, 2017
342834523_a649d83821_m

Quick — what’s the worst thing your au pair could ever overhear? You telling your Host Parent partner how much the Au Pair bothers you? Some kind of grumpy food-related complaint you should be too adult to even have? You announcing that  you’ve tucked a speed tracker into the Au Pair car, so now you’ll […]

22 comments Read the full article →

Counting On-Duty Au Pair Hours When You’re In A Car or Plane

by cv harquail March 15, 2017
342704965_cd13b82918_m

How does your family handle the Au Pair’s time spent with the family over a long car or plane trip? Formally and officially, we are supposed to count all of this time as “on duty” hours.   But, if you have a long haul to get to your vacation destination, you can use up a […]

19 comments Read the full article →

Any New Advice About International Travel During an Au Pair’s Extension Year?

by cv harquail March 2, 2017
19190121422_e25c2f7a68_m

There are some things I would never test. —  Whether the rope bridge across the gorge could hold me. — Whether that snake was was harmless. Or whether I could get my extension Au Pair back into the US after taking her with us on an international trip. With Federal Agents inspecting documents of passengers […]

27 comments Read the full article →

What If Only One Host Parent is a U.S. Citizen?

by cv harquail February 28, 2017
passport-and-visa-600x400

Here’s one of those “finer points” of the Host Parenting situation where we need some of you Agency experts to weigh in. The US State Department (not the Au Pair Agencies themselves) “(1) Require that the host parents are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents”. What happens when one parent IS a citizen but the […]

11 comments Read the full article →

Au Pair Departs in a Huff, Then Moves In Next Door

by cv harquail February 20, 2017
6014069776_a13f2d2c70_m

This LongIslandHostMom’s experience triggered PTSD for me.  All the feels. The ugly, angry resentful feels. All I could think about, after I readLongIslandHostMom’s email, was how awful it had been to run into our former, “flame out” au pair, when she showed up for a BBQ at my friend’s beach house with my friend’s nanny, acting […]

38 comments Read the full article →

When You Discover Your Au Pair was Driving Under the Influence

by cv harquail February 11, 2017
27594932362_0daa769e36_m

Readers, I can’t really preface this one with anything but a request for some wisdom — Dear Au Pair Mom — We have just had an au pair debacle that we are trying to sort through and I was wondering if anyone has any advice. Our au pair asked to use our car to go […]

38 comments Read the full article →

Teach Kids to Apologize to The Au Pair

by cv harquail February 6, 2017

Hosting an Au Pair presents us with one opportunity after another to teach our children how to be kind. In many of our conversations here on the blog, we worry about being kind proactively. As adults, we Host Parents spend a lot of time thinking about how to be kind to our Au Pairs, to […]

2 comments Read the full article →

How to find South American/ Central American Au Pairs that fit our family’s style

by cv harquail January 30, 2017
latin-america-political-map

Hello Au Pair Moms! I am in search of our 3rd au pair, perhaps someone from Central or Latin America.  We really loved the German Au Pair we had, and would love another just like her… but I’ve noticed the European Au Pairs are not as available. I live in Chicago, which has a large Hispanic […]

22 comments Read the full article →

With Your Au Pair’s Social Life, Be Caring Not Controlling

by cv harquail January 28, 2017
5522241527_6f344c321f_m

If you can trust your Au Pair with your children, can’t you trust her with her own Saturday night plans? I wondered this, when I read the email (below) from the OverMonitoredAuPair. I am a BIG believer in knowing how to find your Au Pair in an emergency during his/her off-duty time. I am a […]

22 comments Read the full article →

How to Help Your Au Pair Appreciate the “Au Pair Car”

by cv harquail January 20, 2017
carkeys.jpeg

We all want to be generous, and we all want to be appreciated. And, there’s nothing like having a third car for your au pair to use to make you aware of the tension that can exist when you want to be generous and want to be appreciated. When we bought our first Volvo wagon […]

24 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →