Paying Stipends When Au Pairs Overlap

by cv harquail May 29, 2012
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When your departing au pair has finished training your new au pair, and they are both in your house but only one of them is working, do you (still) need to pay your departing au pair? If your outgoing au pair still has a week or two on her contract, you must still pay her, […]

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Do you celebrate your Au Pair on Mother’s Day? (poll)

by cv harquail May 11, 2012
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Searching through the racks of Mother’s Day cards looking for something just right for my step-mom and mother-in-law, I noticed just how many Mother’s Day cards there are these days for people who aren’t mothers: “You’re like a Mother to Me” “To a special person on Mother’s Day” “Celebrating you for all you do” It […]

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How should an Au Pair handle travelling with the Host Family, for 5 weeks?

by cv harquail May 10, 2012
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Au Pair Somebody posed this question on a different post, and I’m repositioning it here, along with the responses from the APM community. Please join the conversation! Well this is my situation and I am so pissed off because it took me by surprise! My host family decided to move from Colorado to Virginia in […]

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Quick Check In

by cv harquail May 4, 2012

Blogging gurus advise that, if you’ve been absent from your blog and not posting for a while, that you shouldn’t worry about it OR apologize for being MIA.  But for me, it feels like the longer I go without a post, or without an explanation or a comeback plan, the worse it feels. Long time […]

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Tip: Know How To “Pull a Garbo”

by cv harquail April 20, 2012
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“I Vant to Be Alone” ~ Greta Garbo As the famous film actress explained, sometimes a wo/man needs a break. A grown-up’s “time out”. A moment of quiet, in her own kitchen, with a cup of tea and no one asking her to explain yet again how the microwave works. You’ve been there, I know. […]

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Our Au Pair is Headed for Heartbreak: Should we intervene?

by cv harquail April 4, 2012
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Ah, young love. One joy of having an au pair in your home is that you get to relive (however vicariously) the drama, adventure and sometimes romance that your au pair entangles herself in. You hear about the handsome guy/beautiful girl your au pair met, you offer your opinion on what outfit to wear for […]

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What to do when your Au Pair’s job performance starts to slide

by cv harquail March 31, 2012
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In the seasons of the Au Pair year, there often comes a time after The Honeymoon and All Systems Go, but before On the Way Out, when some au pairs hit The Minimum Viable Performance. (Sometimes, though not always, this is paired with The Slough of Not Giving a Shit  Not Caring Anymore.) During The […]

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Au Pairs: Beware of Scams

by cv harquail March 26, 2012
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Dear Prospective Au Pairs — always always always check out an offer you receive that does not come through an approved, well-known au pair agency. There are too many scammers out there who seem to be offering great positions, but who in fact just want to lure you into sending them money. Last week we […]

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Would you choose an “older” Au Pair? (Poll)

by cv harquail March 25, 2012
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Is there an age past which an Au Pair candidate is just “too old” for you to consider? We got a note from OlderAP asking: Would Host Families consider accepting an older au pair? I am 26 years old. I graduated from university with MSc, extremely good grades, and have childcare experience with children aged […]

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How can we tell our Au Pair we don’t want to extend?

by cv harquail March 13, 2012
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Probably the biggest downside to the extension option is the possibility for a mismatch between the family’s interest in extending and the au pair’s interest in extending. When both sides don’t clearly share the same expectation, someone is bound to get disappointed. And, when people are disappointed, they often withdraw from a relationship and leave the […]

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