Interviewing Au Pairs: How do you screen for Maturity?

by cv harquail March 17, 2014
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On finding an Au Pair who can handle a bunch of kids, a complex household, or both,  TexasHM says: You have got to have someone that is bulletproof.  Patient, mature, sharp judgment, a jack of all trades and that’s very hard to find — period. There are things you can teach and things you can’t. […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: Creative Fun

by cv harquail March 16, 2014
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We love coming home and discovering what projects AP and our kids worked on during the day. One time it was a cake that they made by taking on the challenge of not using a recipe. It tasted great even though it was only about an inch tall. Another time, AP showed the kids how to make papier-mâché.  For […]

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Open Thread: Here we go!

by cv harquail March 15, 2014
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Welcome to our first Saturday Open Thread/ Experiment!   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 as long as it follows our basic comments policy. Each thread will be open for a full week, from Saturday morning […]

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First Impressions: Can you ‘just know’ you need a rematch, already?

by cv harquail March 14, 2014
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Did you ever just “know” you needed to rematch?   Dear AuPairMoms! Our incredible first AP left last week – tears all around; she loved our 3 little kids so much and was an amazing friend to us too.  We live in a desirable area and have a separate studio for the AP, have a third […]

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Divorce Difficulties: When Your Ex-Spouse Gets an Au Pair

by cv harquail March 12, 2014
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Childcare arrangements for families with two sets of parents can be difficult for everyone.   The non-custodial parent often has very little influence over the childcare choices the custodial parent makes. If this parent knows very little about Au Pairs as a concept, or has only met Au Pairs who have not made a good […]

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Host Parent Confidential: Who do you confide in about your au pair relationship challenges?

by cv harquail March 11, 2014
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Supposedly, The best way to stay motivated is to tell people about your goal. Supposedly, The best way to get new insights is to talk about your problem with other people who have different perspectives. So if you want to stay motivated to work on your relationship with your au pair, and you want to get […]

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First Time Here? Please Take Our Survey

by cv harquail March 11, 2014
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If this is your first (or second) visit to AuPairMom, we’d like to hear about what brought you here and whether you found what you need so that we can make the site work better for you.  Will you take our New Visitor Survey?  It’s 10 quick questions–it should take about 1 minute, 2 if you […]

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Notes About The Blog: What’s been happening behind the scenes at AuPairMom

by cv harquail March 9, 2014
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You might be wondering what’s going on here at AuPairMom, what with the revised blog formatting and my efforts to post more often.  I’ve finally put the wheels in motion to ‘upgrade’ AuPairMom so that it works more effectively for you and for me. AuPairMom has got itself a consultant, Shawn. 

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Au Pair Appreciation: Our Feedback Really Matters

by cv harquail March 9, 2014
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Sometimes the posts on AuPairMom make it all the way around the world. Recently, one of the post for AuPair Appreciation Week showed up on the screen of the au pair it described. She writes back: Oh Host Mom,   I am moved to tears,what a wonderful post about me!!  Thank you so much,this article […]

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Don’t Make Your Au Pair Do Your Kids’ Homework

by cv harquail March 8, 2014
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Haven’t we all wished for someone else to do our Algebra homework? That’s normal. What’s not so normal, though, is to ask your au pair to do your 17 year old’s homework. This situation is a little outside our usual boundaries, because the au pair is in Europe (US rules don’t apply), because she has […]

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