Teaching Your Au Pair Real American Values: Celebrate #Giving Tuesday

by cv harquail December 2, 2014
World Homeless Day

Just when we’re trying to celebrate the most welcoming American tradition, and start off the winter holiday with a warm, family gathering, we get Black Friday.  The annual celebration of consumerism and low low prices that results in shoving, pushing, overspending, and spiritual emptiness. Black Friday is American culture at its worst.  So you can […]

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AuPairMom is thankful for … TaCL

by cv harquail November 25, 2014
thankful owl

We all know her. We all love her. TaCL : the internet-famous TakingAComputerLunch. She’s #1 of 2,200 Over the course of the 6+ years of AuPairMom, around 2,200 different people have contributed to the blog by offering advice in the comments. It’s TaCL’s 5 Year Anniversary on Au Pair Mom, and I think it’s time we […]

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AuPairMom Blog Notes: When you email for advice…

by cv harquail November 25, 2014

[Note: This post should help to clarify what you can expect when you email AuPairMom with a question. It aims to put into black and white the principles by which we’ve been operating for a while. Please email with any questions! ~cvh] When you email AuPairMom for advice, here are some things you should know: […]

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I Am Grateful for Our Au Pair, Because… : Open Thread Nov 20

by cv harquail November 20, 2014
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My family is on our way to Ohio to see Grandma perform in The Glass Menagerie and to celebrate her 8oth Birthday! It was on a long drive to Ohio back in 2008 when I realized that we needed  AuPairMom — so in celebration of (yet another) 8.5 hour ride, here’s an open thread for the […]

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TurnAround Situations With Au Pairs and Host Parents: Do they exist?

by cv harquail November 12, 2014
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ReturningHM claims that they do: We have had three major turnaround situations over the 8 years we’ve been hosting, two of which happened on the cusp of rematch, so they do work out some of the time! I have to believe this is true– with all the good advice that gets shared here, surely someone’s […]

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Share The Fun and the Not-So-Fun with Your Au Pair

by cv harquail November 11, 2014
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Prompted by our conversation over the weekend about the au pair who was unhappy with the ratio of chores-to-child interaction in his work week, I’m reposting something from 2009: One super-helpful piece of advice my friend Adelaide gave me when we got our first au pair was “Be Sure to Share the Cream.” Share both […]

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Au Pair Host Family Fun for Thanksgiving

by cv harquail November 10, 2014
thanksgiving au pair celebrating, blogs about au pairs

20 Fun Things You Can Do with Family on Thanksgiving Hi Host moms—  I found this great list of ideas for Thanksgiving on the DumbLittleMan Tips for Life blog. It’s such a great list that there is no way to summarize it and do it justice, so I’m excerpting it in large chunks… but if […]

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Childcare vs. Child Chores: What’s a fair balance for an Au Pair?

by cv harquail November 7, 2014
Peg Man

An Au Pair’s primary role is child care– as in, caring for the actual child.   Virtually no young adult comes to the US for a year to do a kid’s laundry, make the kid’s bed, or clean splashed applesauce off the kitchen floor. While the child-related housework chores are certainly part of the tasks […]

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3 Reasons To Get A Flu Shot- with your Au Pair

by cv harquail November 3, 2014

Cold’n sneezy season. I have just returned from CVS, where I bought zinc lozenges, throat spray, tissues, Ricola, and sudafed. And, I got a flu shot. There’s nothing you can do about a cold– just deal with it, wash your hands, and move on. But the flu? The real, honest-to-goodness slay-you-with-sickness-phlem-and-fever flu? That can be […]

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Your Au Pair Handbook: Can it help you screen for the right candidate?

by cv harquail November 1, 2014
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Your Host Family Handbook can be a good tool for screening prospective Au Pair Candidates. Handbooks generally outline the concrete expectations of a host family as well as the particular rules and parameters that an au pair is expected to work with.  Sure, a long handbook might seem daunting to an au pair candidate, but […]

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