Should We Extend An Au Pair While She Plans To Wed Her American Husband?

by cv harquail July 4, 2014

I need immediate advice from some of our host moms who have dealt with an aupair, wanting to extend, but also planning to get married, switch visas etc. Our aupair whom we love is thinking of marriage! her boyfriend has proposed? we are happy and excited for her, but not sure how to advice her. […]

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Talking Politics With Your Au Pair

by cv harquail July 3, 2014
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“Obama never should have taken the soldiers out of Iraq.” So opined my neighbor’s au pair, over dinner last week. “Obama let the Iraq people down, because he promised that the US would protect their freedom,” she continued. My neighbor choked on her caesar salad, fighting back the urge to scream “Stop watching Fox News!“ […]

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Fun for the 4th: Bake a Flag Cake

by cv harquail July 1, 2014
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Does your Au Pair like to bake? Do your kids? If you’ve ever made a checkerboard cake, a heart-shaped cake, or a cake-like thing that looked vaguely like Thomas The Tank Engine, you have all the skills and equipment you need to make this very American beauty. The flag-making process and recipe come from the […]

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Extreme Scheduling: Is it fair to an Au Pair?

by cv harquail June 27, 2014
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 Extreme Scheduling: When you use all your 45 ‘on duty’ hours in one fell swoop People actually do this. I’ve heard from au pairs who are scheduled for three days in a row when no parents are otherwise present, even at ‘off duty’ times (such as when a mom is a pilot and works in 3 […]

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The Au Pair Scheduling Constraint That Might Surprise You

by cv harquail June 26, 2014
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I’ve been surprised by some of the fine details in the rules and the principles that guide how we should schedule an au pair’s ‘on duty‘ hours.   For example, I was surprised to learn that some Au Pair Agencies require that an au pair’s day off and half-day off are contiguous (making it 36 […]

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Family Handbook Ideas for Au Pairs Caring For Infants

by cv harquail June 25, 2014
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Caring for an infant, especially when the parents are brand-new to parenting, can pose special challenges for an Au Pair. Au Pairs in these situations will already be ‘infant-qualified’  — meaning that they’ve had direct experience with infants and will know how to do all the basics.  But because parents are still feeling their way […]

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Saying Goodbye to a Host Toddler: Ideas?

by cv harquail June 20, 2014
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“You have to stay forever, ” the little girl tells me. “We love you more than your real family.” Our first au pair adored our first child. She sang to her, read to her, dressed her up in crazy outfits, taught her how to blow dandelion puffs, and rocked her to sleep in her arms. I think […]

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How To Establish Family Norms Around Texting

by cv harquail June 17, 2014
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One of the most annoying things about adopting new technology is the way that we quickly and unconsciously sink to the lowest common denominator of interpersonal norms.   Said another way, new technologies seem to bring out self-centeredness, thoughtlessness and rudeness in people (cell phone conversations in toilet stalls, anyone?), often without anyone really noticing, and almost always without […]

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Open Thread: June 15

by cv harquail June 14, 2014
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    It’s an open thread, for the rest of the weekend, with one little catch: Share a micro-affirmation, for anything about the Au Pair hosting experience, before you launch into a concern or question. I appreciate all the photographers who share their images in the Creative Commons section of Flickr. So much pretty.  Happy […]

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Get Your Au Pair an American Flag, says TexasHM

by cv harquail June 13, 2014
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Happy Flag Day! Flag Day is a special day for our neighborhood — it’s my next-door neighbor and friend Michael’s birthday. Every year his wife decorates their front porch with flags and has the neighborhood over for cake to mark the dual celebration.   But even without the cake, it’s still another fun reminder for […]

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