Holiday Gift Exchange: Host Parent to Host Parent

by cv harquail December 22, 2014
au pair gifts, au pair advice, choosing an au pair

My mom had a wonderful tradition for our neighborhood Christmas party. She asked every grown up to bring a small gift for a grab bag.  The gift had to be wrapped in aluminum foil so that (1) you couldn’t quite tell what it was, and (2)everything looked shiny. When folks arrived at the party they put […]

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Male Au Pairs: Not just for male host kids, by ReturningHM

by cv harquail December 16, 2014
just peeking

When ReturningHM offered to write a post about her experiences with male au pairs, I was delighted. Many new readers find AuPairMom by searching the term  ‘male au pair’. There simply isn’t that much information out there about the benefits and challenges of male au pairs vs female ones. Folks are curious about what it […]

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Traditions with a Twist: A Holiday Game with your Au Pair, guest post by Cristina Sierra

by cv harquail December 12, 2014
jack lail

Long time contributor-under-a-nom-de-mom, Cristina Sierra shares this holiday idea: A “Mad” Twist on ‘T’was The Night Before Christmas’ Here’s a creative way to introduce your Au Pair to a US holiday tradition, namely the poem  “T’was the night before Christmas” – by making it his / her own. How? Easy – just add Mad Libs. By […]

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Create a Holiday Tradition– Just for your Au Pair

by cv harquail December 10, 2014
pug

You were wondering when I’d start the holiday posts … and here’s the first one! When new people enter our families, a great way to welcome them is to include them explicitly in our family holiday celebrations. Efforts like: Creating a Christmas stocking for your au pair to hang along with the kids’, Getting an additional […]

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How Should Au Pair Candidates Choose An Au Pair Agency?

by cv harquail December 8, 2014
o hai pierre cat

Here’s something we’ve never talked about: How Should Au Pairs who want to come to the USA choose the agencies to represent them?   (note: let’s only do US Agencies in this post– I’ll do another one for ‘international’ agencies) We Host Parents know that there are a few differences in Au Pair Agencies that […]

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Help Your Au Pair Learn When to “Pick Her Battles” with Kids

by cv harquail December 6, 2014
on the slide

How do you teach the art of knowing when to let things slide? So much of good parenting and good caregiving is about being consistent. Kids thrive on routine. They need consistent explanations, consistent expectations, and consistent consequences so that they learn how to make good choices with their own behavior. Yet, so much of […]

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Saying No, and Staying Confident, When Your Au Pair Wants Your Car For A Roadtrip

by cv harquail December 4, 2014
puppy car

Why do we find it so hard to stick to our guns when an au pair asks us to bend our rules? None of us wants to seem petty, or stingy, or selfish.  On the contrary– we want to be generous where we can, we want to reward au pairs who do a great job […]

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Teaching Your Au Pair Real American Values: Celebrate #Giving Tuesday

by cv harquail December 2, 2014
World Homeless Day

Just when we’re trying to celebrate the most welcoming American tradition, and start off the winter holiday with a warm, family gathering, we get Black Friday.  The annual celebration of consumerism and low low prices that results in shoving, pushing, overspending, and spiritual emptiness. Black Friday is American culture at its worst.  So you can […]

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AuPairMom is thankful for … TaCL

by cv harquail November 25, 2014
thankful owl

We all know her. We all love her. TaCL : the internet-famous TakingAComputerLunch. She’s #1 of 2,200 Over the course of the 6+ years of AuPairMom, around 2,200 different people have contributed to the blog by offering advice in the comments. It’s TaCL’s 5 Year Anniversary on Au Pair Mom, and I think it’s time we […]

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AuPairMom Blog Notes: When you email for advice…

by cv harquail November 25, 2014

[Note: This post should help to clarify what you can expect when you email AuPairMom with a question. It aims to put into black and white the principles by which we’ve been operating for a while. Please email with any questions! ~cvh] When you email AuPairMom for advice, here are some things you should know: […]

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