How to Get Your Au Pair Ready To Cook

by cv harquail September 12, 2014
bagel

Once your host kids get past the ‘oatmeal and smashed peas’ phase, it’s time for an Au Pair to do some real cooking. Even au pairs who’ve cooked in their home countries find cooking in America to be a bit challenging. Au Pairs need to figure out: How our appliances work What each of the foods […]

35 comments Read the full article →

Smelly House: Host Mom Hates Air Fresheners

by cv harquail September 11, 2014
thread

Attention readers: This second post about smells and host parents is absolutely unrelated to the previous post.  The Au Pair in the first post and the Au Pair here are not the same person, and the host parents aren’t the same people. It was coincidence that TACL brought up this issue last week….I already had […]

29 comments Read the full article →

My Host Family’s House is Smelly. What should I do?

by cv harquail September 10, 2014
good air

Everyone’s house has a smell. Sometimes it’s “dog”, sometimes it’s “curry” and sometimes it’s just “ick”. We don’t usually notice the everyday smell of our own home because we’re accustomed to it. But when our au pairs walk in for the first time, they notice because the smell is new to them. Over time, they […]

30 comments Read the full article →

Should She Ask Her Host Mom To Read AuPairMom?

by cv harquail September 8, 2014
6847244791_bf2fd1ae57_z

Dear AuPairMom – I have been reading AuPairMom while I was deciding to become an au pair and I was expecting that what you have on this blog explains what an au pair should expect. My host mom seems to be having some struggles with having an au pair. I’m my family’s first au pair. My family is […]

15 comments Read the full article →

Improve Your AuPair’s Driving With an Online Driving Class

by cv harquail September 5, 2014
3930504131_52a9259f83_z

An online driving course is an easy, inexpensive way to get both you and your AuPair feeling confident about her/his driving– before your au pair even arrives in the USA! Here’s a tip from TexasHostMom—  Our first AP was 26 when she arrived and had been driving for some time, so I never thought we’d have […]

40 comments Read the full article →

Host Mom Desperately Trying — Too Hard?

by cv harquail September 3, 2014
2907465561_6bda3f0fea_z

What is it they say about choosing a third au pair after two huge disappointments: It’s the “Triumph of Hope over Experience”? OzHostMom writes with a quandary: She’s really trying, she’s really optimistic, except she’s lost her host mom mojo. I’ve reordered her story, below, so that you get the critical point near the start: […]

102 comments Read the full article →

3 Features of Au Pairing: Which One Challenges You?

by cv harquail September 1, 2014
2176773871_97a17213ea_z

What are the real, important differences between Au Pairs and other kinds of childcare providers, like nannies, babysitters, or childcare centers? What really influences the challenges that host parents and au pairs face when it comes to making this ‘the best year ever’? It used to be that when people asked me how having an […]

19 comments Read the full article →

Open Thread: Labor Day Weekend 2014

by cv harquail August 30, 2014
beach chairs

Happy Labor Day weekend– and for those of us whose kids (finally) go back to school this coming week, happy last day of summer vacation. Enjoy this open thread, to converse about anything your heart desires (as long as it fits within our Comments policy). Also, if there are things you want us to discuss on […]

99 comments Read the full article →

Labor Day: An American Celebration of Workers

by cv harquail August 29, 2014
labor day

American Culture is on my mind today.   Of the three big distinctions between Au Pair childcare and other childcare, the idea of cultural exchange often takes a back seat.  One reason for ‘culture’ receding in to the background is that we regularly experience cultural differences and cultural exchange at the interpersonal level. Cultural exchange […]

2 comments Read the full article →

How to Decline an Au Pair Match — Politely

by cv harquail August 26, 2014
7982702742_b57e8ae424

No one wants to be rejected — not au pairs and not host parents.   But reject each other we must, since we know that even a perfectly lovely candidate (in this case, either a host parent or a potential au pair) may just not feel like the right fit. But how can we let the […]

34 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →