Is It Too Late To Extend? Any J-1 Workarounds?

by cv harquail January 18, 2015
15439974589_f58585c4c7_m

Imagine it — you have an au pair you love. She didn’t want to extend. Now she’s changed her mind, but the agency says it’s too late. Is it really too late? Dear Au Pair Mom– We just ended the year with the world’s best au pair.  She is a part of our family. The […]

44 comments Read the full article →

Lost Passport Delays Au Pair’s Arrival. Should we match or move on?

by cv harquail January 17, 2015
6322835149_3f178f1127_m

Dear Au Pair Moms– We’ve got a crazy delay in our Au Pair’s arrival that messes up my carefully made plans. Specifically, we are looking at a 3-5 week gap, maybe longer, to figure out childcare and wait for our au pair who lost her visa. Can you advise me what to do? Our old au […]

8 comments Read the full article →

Reimbursing Your Au Pair: Petty Cash Jars or Slush Funds?

by cv harquail January 16, 2015
au pair advice, petty cash

How does your family manage paying for small things, like pizzas, movie tickets, or another gallon of milk? Petty Cash Jars I’m a big fan of the petty cash jar (or in our case, a zippered pencil case /envelope in the kitchen drawer).   I keep about $20 in the envelope– usually in $1s and […]

35 comments Read the full article →

Awkward Arrival Time But We Like This Au Pair — Should We Match or Move On?

by cv harquail January 15, 2015
1464437476_f63fee7136_m

We’re new to the AP process, currently interviewing for our first AP ever. I’m in academia, and was hoping for someone to start in July or August, so that they can get comfortable with my son (will be 3 years old in the Fall) before school starts back up in September. One issue is that […]

61 comments Read the full article →

Rules & Methods for Paying Your Au Pair

by cv harquail January 14, 2015
hello-kitty-blossoms-check-series

Paying your Au Pair her or his weekly stipend, on time and at the right amount, is critically important for sustaining a good au pair-host parent relationship. Your Au Pair is working hard at a real job, and s/he is earning that stipend. Plus, s/he probably has a lot of plans for using this money […]

38 comments Read the full article →

Do You Round Up Your Au Pair Stipend? (poll)

by cv harquail January 12, 2015

Here’s a quick poll to get a sense of the numbers behind our responses to Why You Shouldn’t Round Up Your Au Pair’s Weekly Stipend

12 comments Read the full article →

Why You Shouldn’t Round Up Your Au Pair’s Weekly Stipend

by cv harquail January 12, 2015
P1000288

What is “One Hundred Ninety-Five Dollars and Seventy Five Cents“? A:  The amount of an Au Pair’s weekly stipend, or B: An awkward, not-round number? Both. Which is why many families ’round up’ from $195.75 and pay their au pairs an even $200 per week. Rounding Up seems to make sense. If you pay your […]

63 comments Read the full article →

Who Pays for Your Au Pair’s Gas?

by cv harquail January 10, 2015
au pair car, au pair driving, gas money

Au Pairs should pay for their own gas when they use the family’s car(s) on their own personal time.  Host Families should pay for gas used when the Au Pair drives for family and child-related activities. Managing who pays for gas is pretty simple, right? If only cars came with two gas tanks, or funky meters […]

60 comments Read the full article →

Notes on the Blog: You aren’t crazy

by cv harquail January 8, 2015
5274236645_4c90517836_m

You *have* been seeing new posts pop up and then disappear.  I’ve been trying to untangle some of the hijacked threads —  by creating new posts for some topics, and then assigning comments to these new posts (using a new tool I just found, hooray me).  But, since posts have to be ‘published’ in order to […]

5 comments Read the full article →

Evaluating Progress As Your Au Pair Aims to Improve

by cv harquail January 8, 2015
au pair performance, au pair rematch, host parent advice

How much improvement is ‘enough’ to shift an au pair out of  “on the way to rematch”? When there are performance issues with an Au Pair and we ask for an improvement, we expect that: (1) The au pair’s performance will improve, (2) Performance will improve enough to satisfy the Host Parent’s original concerns, (3) The […]

21 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →