How does your professional expertise influence your Host Parenting?

by cv harquail April 3, 2014

All lot of us au pair moms and dads have interesting professional experience. I know from emailing many of you ‘behind the blog’ that we have doctors, lawyers, government service managers, someone who does pr for a city, customer service managers, law enforcement officers, a judge, school teachers, accountants, strategic consultants, small business owners, a […]

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Tell Us What You Think! Reader Survey

by cv harquail April 2, 2014

Share your anonymous opinions and suggestions, by participating in our Survey of AuPairMom Readers: Click Here to Take The Survey!

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When Your Au Pair Resents Working on Saturday Nights

by cv harquail April 2, 2014
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There are two kinds of host family schedules: Host Families that use up all of their 45 hours during the host parents’ Mon – Fri work week, and Host Families that don’t. I can pretty much guarantee you that if your host family schedule is the second kind, and you try to use your au […]

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Au Please, Your Advice: Is an Au Pair Right For Us?

by cv harquail April 1, 2014
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For all things au pair -related, the first step is to know what kind of care-giving you need. Clarity in your needs not only helps you narrow down the field of impressive au pair candidates, it also helps you make the necessary trade-offs between “ideal” and “real world terrific”. Someone who can play the violin? […]

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Au Pair lies, but my kids love him. Should we rematch?

by cv harquail March 31, 2014
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Just when you think the answer is clear, a situation comes along that makes it foggy again. Only last week, I claimed that repeated lying was an automatic, unquestionable grounds for rematch. Then, we got this email, below, from DevastatedHM. DevastatedHM has an au pair that she and her family adore, but who has broken […]

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Open Thread: March 29

by cv harquail March 29, 2014
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  Welcome to our Weekend Open Thread!   Open threads are for comments on any subject at all, including past posts, things we haven’t posted on, what you’ve been thinking or doing, etc. You can even let me know if there’s a topic you think I should queue up for the coming week. Just be […]

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Scheduling Your Au Pair: When does “On Duty” start and stop?

by cv harquail March 28, 2014
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When does an au pair actually ‘start’ or ‘stop’ being on duty? When we’re counting up the hours in the week that we need childcare, it’s tempting to imagine that we can start and stop ‘on duty’ time right on the precise minute. How else are we to cover an entire week? I look back […]

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Au Pair is harsh and negative with Host Kids: Can we change her interaction style?

by cv harquail March 27, 2014
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Dear Au Pair Mom Community, I really need your advice about a situation I have where I don’t think “rematch” is feasible (and besides my husband is totally against it). Basically we have had an Au Pair (our 3rd) for the last 9 months. The first 6 months were great. She’s organized, responsible, a good […]

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Two Weeks, Three Lies, and One Next Step: Rematch

by cv harquail March 26, 2014
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Unsafe behavior. Confirmed serious lying. These are the two unquestionable reasons for rematching– even if your au pair is brand-new. Of course, the agencies and even we ourselves ask that we give each new au pair situation a chance to work itself out. Many of us have had au pairs who turned out to be […]

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Bending the the Wrong Direction? Giving your Au Pair what she really wants

by cv harquail March 25, 2014
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One day when I was feeling really overwhelmed by the administrivia, chores, chauffeuring and routines of our household, I asked my tweenage daughter: “Of the things I do for you and your sister, which ones matter the most to you? What do I do that helps you feel really loved?” I thought the answer might […]

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