Open Thread: April 11

by cv harquail April 12, 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. Have you responded […]

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The Academically-Ambitious Au Pair: Options for serious education during an Au Pair Year

by cv harquail April 11, 2014
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The education requirement for au pairs can be a bit of a fig leaf. The requirement makes Au Pairs “look like” exchange students for the purposes of Homeland Security and Immigration, even while the au pairs are here for what amounts to a full-time job.   Most of the time, an au pair’s education is […]

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What Au Pair Agency Selection Process Works Best For You?

by cv harquail April 9, 2014
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A guest post comparing Cultural Care and GoAuPair, by MultiTaskingHost Mom On AuPairMom we spend a lot of time sharing tips for matching with an AuPair. It makes sense that we focus on the interview questions, how to evaluate experience in a certain skill, and how to interpret the vibe given by the potential au […]

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Photographing Host Children: What’s appropriate to shoot, and what’s appropriate to share?

by cv harquail April 7, 2014
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All children are beautiful. When we, our au pairs, our families, and our friends see our beautiful child, it’s oh-so-tempting to try to hold that image of beauty still, to want to preserve it as a memory forever. When we adore these children, when we are proud of them, when we love them, we want […]

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Open Thread: April 5th

by cv harquail April 5, 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 sure […]

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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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