When Your Au Pair Wants To Bring Home A New Romance

by cv harquail February 22, 2014
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Oh, the au pair adventure! A new country, a new family, and sometimes even a new romance. When our au pairs fall in love — or heck, if they find somebody really hot that they want to date — they often want to bring this person home with them. When that home is also your […]

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Autonomy vs. Food Safety When The Au Pair Cooks

by cv harquail February 21, 2014
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How do I give my Au Pair autonomy in the kitchen without worrying that my kids are going to eat something that could make them sick? Dear AuPairMoms —  I need to find ways to teach my au pairs about food safety, without offending them. Any ideas? Here’s my story: AP1: Raw Bacon My son was […]

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Forget Overlap: Help Me Get My Departing Au Pair Out The Door!

by cv harquail February 20, 2014
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I need help handling the transition between our departing au pair and our arriving au pair. I’m nearing the end of our year with our very AP, who is 26, from China, with excellent English.  Our AP#1 is kind and patient with our 13-month baby girl.  She is also immature. AP#1’s term ends in less […]

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8 Ways To Teach Your Au Pair About Food Safety

by cv harquail February 19, 2014
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Milk left out on the counter. Raw eggs in salad dressing. Undercooked chicken thighs. And of course, the picnic lunch with macaroni salad but no ice pack. All of these are food safety disasters. If your Au Pair hasn’t been taught about food safety, though, he or she might think these are harmless mistakes. That […]

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My Host Mom is Snooping In My Bedroom. How can get some privacy?

by cv harquail February 18, 2014
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Dear AuPair Moms –– I’d like your thoughts about managing privacy, especially with a host mom who’s a bit, shall we say, inquisitive.    As an au pair, I have my own room in my host family’s house. Both my HM and HF are very private people, which I appreciate, since I am the same. […]

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What Are The Most Important Milestones For You and Your Au Pair?

by cv harquail February 17, 2014
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Every au pair arrives in the US about two steps into her or his adventure — with a million more steps to go.   As they make their way on their adventure, au pairs will hit a predictable set of milestones. Some of these have to do with becoming really competent with US culture— your […]

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We Can’t Afford Alternative Childcare While Our Au Pair’s Broken Arm Mends. What to do?

by cv harquail February 16, 2014
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Dear AuPairMoms— Could we re-open a topic from August 2012 on what to do when an au pair breaks a bone,  is in a cast and can’t drive? In that situation the au pair only had three weeks left, and the comments in large part were geared toward that scenario — mine’s a bit different. […]

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Celebrating Your Au Pair By Creating Experiences

by cv harquail February 15, 2014
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Often when we want to celebrate a milestone with our au pair, our thoughts turn to gifts of things.   We don’t feel embarrassed turning to gift cards and cash, because we know that our au pairs are often saving money for travel or for some special item at Urban Outfitters.  We tend to recommend […]

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Host Family Abandoned My Daughter! Should she rematch, or come home?

by cv harquail February 12, 2014
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Dear AuPairMoms, I’m a mom from South Africa. My dear daughter, S, has just arrived in America for a year au pairing. She completed her orientation week in New York, loving everything about it, and travelled to a nearby town to meet her Host Family last Friday. We had all been skyping the family since November and were […]

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My Host Family Thinks I’m Unreliable. Can I change their minds?

by cv harquail February 9, 2014
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Dear AuPairMom-  I have made a few mistakes with my host family, and I am wondering if I can fix things.  I arrived in the US a little over 5 months ago. After three months I broke my wrist, needed surgery, could not do my job correctly but I got an incredible support from my […]

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