Celebrate Halloween With Your Au Pair

by cv harquail October 28, 2014
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Special Halloween Edition Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to share with Au Pairs. Unlike some holidays, Halloween doesn’t seem to trigger a whole lot of nostalgia and homesickness. For au pairs who ‘do’ Halloween in their home countries, it’s a chance for her to share traditions from her culture. And, if your au […]

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Beware the Homesick Au Pair: Screen it out, or wait it out?

by cv harquail October 28, 2014
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Homesickness is completely predictable Homesickness is something that every au pair should anticipate, and that every au pair should make a commitment to work through. If you’re signing up to spend a year in another country, in another family, then you are committing to working through any homesickness that occurs between month 1 and month […]

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Smartphones That Outlast Your Au Pair, guest post by QuirkyMom

by cv harquail October 26, 2014
ganesha balunsat

It’s a lot of work to set up your au pair’s smart phone so that it has all the apps, all the contacts, and all the info you think s/he’ll need.   This is great work to do on behalf of keeping everyone organized and connected.  How can you keep this information year to year, […]

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Share Your System? Tips from Host Parents

by cv harquail October 23, 2014
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A new kind of open thread, where you can share the systems that keep you sane.

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Au Pair Asks: How can I tell my Host Family that they’re so noisy they wake me up?

by cv harquail October 22, 2014
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If the shoe were on the other foot, we wouldn’t hesitate to tell our au pairs that their early morning or late night behavior was so rowdy that it interrupted our sleep. But when you’re the au pair, and it’s your host family just doing their thing in the kitchen, what can you do? Au […]

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This Is The Open Thread You’ve Been Looking For

by cv harquail October 18, 2014
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I know it’s been a while– and questions are piling up. Time for an open thread! Keep in mind, it can take some time to clear the comment moderation gauntlet for first-time contributors. … This thread will be open until Monday. Got to it, readers!     Image: Evan Leeson on Flickr

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How to Switch Au Pair Agencies, Gracefully

by cv harquail October 16, 2014
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Host Families choose their particular Au Pair Agency for all sorts of reasons. They might choose the agency their neighbors use, the agency that has the best promotional deal, or even the agency that has a name they can spell correctly when they are googling in the middle of the night having been awakened again by […]

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How much can an Au Pair influence the positive climate of your home?

by cv harquail October 13, 2014
evening in reykjavik

Add one negative person, and the whole ‘psychic weather system’ of a family can become depressed. Having an au pair who is a grump, a complainer, a depressive, a wet noodle, or a ghost can really be a drag on the family’s energy. But is an au pair’s impact on the family climate as powerful the […]

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3 Easy Ways to Help Your Au Pair Use Your Home Appliances Correctly

by cv harquail October 10, 2014
wash maching

American appliances have too many options. Having endless options is great for getting just the right setting for a specific task, but it becomes quite a problem when you’re forever trying to remember which combinations of buttons and levers to press. Between our vacuum cleaner (5 attachments, 3 wands and 5 buttons), our washer (23 […]

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LGBT Au Pairs: Have Host Parents’ thoughts changed on whether sexual orientation matters?

by cv harquail October 5, 2014
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Given the pace of changes in the US around issues of marriage equality and the recognition of trans* people, an au pair writes to ask whether Host Parents views have changed: I found one post about the topic from 2010. I am curious if something has changed for HF’s? I am gay but none knows […]

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