Micro-Affirmations: Tiny, Powerful Ways to Motivate & Thank Your Au Pair

by cv harquail June 10, 2014
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For work completely unrelated to AuPairMom, I’ve been researching the concept of “micro-affirmations”, which are the opposite of “micro-aggressions”.  These are small, almost imperceptible behaviors towards one another than can either affirm or threaten another person.  In organizations, they are the behavioral building blocks of an inclusive welcoming culture, or a dominating, oppressive one. Often […]

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Open Thread: June 7

by cv harquail June 7, 2014
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 Off to the races! It’s not like my girls didn’t know we were going to Belmont, and didn’t have plenty of time to match their dress to any one of our collection of fascinators and hats, but no…. no one’s ready, and we’re dashing out the door. In the meantime, we’ve got an open thread, […]

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Host Mom Dumped at Funeral by Extension Au Pair-turned-Bridezilla

by cv harquail June 4, 2014
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Readers, I couldn’t think of another headline that would capture the gawd-awful truth of this host mom’s story. Let’s call her “UnluckyHostMom”.  Dear AuPairMom– I know that you typically post questions, and that you occasionally run guest posts written by readers.  I recently had such a terrible au pair experience, that I thought it would be […]

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Bilingualism Benefits Young Brains … and older ones, too.

by cv harquail June 3, 2014
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From WarmStateMomma: For parents raising bilingual kids (or trying to) – I saw this article about a study on bilingualism: “Our study is the first to examine whether learning a second language impacts cognitive performance later in life while controlling for childhood intelligence,” said lead author Dr. Thomas Bak, of the University of Edinburgh, in […]

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Your Summer Re-Set Conversation: What should you cover?

by cv harquail June 2, 2014
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Summertime, and the living is… different.  Whether it’s our kids’ schedule, our own work schedule, or even just the return of the Good Humor Man, the start of summer opens up a chance to adjust how things are going with our Au Pairs. As our family’s patterns change, we need to bring our au pairs along with […]

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Open Thread: May 31

by cv harquail May 31, 2014
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Welcome to our weekend open thread. If you’ve got any au pair issues at loose sends, you can tie them up here with the help of the AuPairMom community.   This thread will be open for comments, ideas and questions (subject to moderation, for first time commenters) until Monday morning or 100 comments, whichever comes […]

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Bridging Yards, Bridging Cultures, Guest Post by Amy Massey

by Amy Massey May 29, 2014
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Here’s a guest post from Amy Massey, a long-time reader, a host mom, and now a placement director with A.P.EX PROaupair. Amy writes about her experiences as a host parent who — like her backyard neighbor– has a child with special needs. Please note that this post isn’t sponsored by PROaupair, nor is it an advertisement […]

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What to do when an Au Pair doesn’t spend her whole *education* budget

by cv harquail May 26, 2014
Sweet Surprise Book with Muffin

The cost of college credits is so high, it’s hard to imagine that some au pairs don’t spend their entire Education allowance ($500) on meeting their education requirement. But, sometimes an au pair gets fees waived or they find a program with lower costs. Some au pairs take classes (like ESL) that get them credits […]

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Open Thread: Memorial Day Weekend

by cv harquail May 24, 2014
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Drumroll Please, for this weekend’s Open Thread! If you’ve got something you want to share, jump right in. If your comment doesn’t show up right away, it may be that my All-American software has automatically held the comment in moderation, waiting until I put down my gin and tonic.  This thread will remain open until […]

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Vacation Ideas for Au Pair: Fun, low cost, not too lonely?

by cv harquail May 23, 2014
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I need some helpful advice about vacationing ideas for our AP. Together, we had coordinated vacations, but now her plans have fallen through. Our au pair is coming with me and the kids on a cross country trip to Seattle.  I suggested to her that she take a week off on the west coast once my […]

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