With Au Pair-Host Parent Problems, It’s Never Just One Thing …

by cv harquail March 19, 2017
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It’s usually a bunch of things, all tangled up in a knot, like when you put tights and long-sleeved T-shirts in the dryer. Just as with a laundry knot, you can’t just pull on (or fix) one thing, and expect the all the little pieces to unlock, unkink, and fold themselves up into nice packets ready […]

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The Worst Thing an Au Pair Can Overhear

by cv harquail March 17, 2017
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Quick — what’s the worst thing your au pair could ever overhear? You telling your Host Parent partner how much the Au Pair bothers you? Some kind of grumpy food-related complaint you should be too adult to even have? You announcing that  you’ve tucked a speed tracker into the Au Pair car, so now you’ll […]

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Counting On-Duty Au Pair Hours When You’re In A Car or Plane

by cv harquail March 15, 2017
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How does your family handle the Au Pair’s time spent with the family over a long car or plane trip? Formally and officially, we are supposed to count all of this time as “on duty” hours.   But, if you have a long haul to get to your vacation destination, you can use up a […]

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Any New Advice About International Travel During an Au Pair’s Extension Year?

by cv harquail March 2, 2017
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There are some things I would never test. —  Whether the rope bridge across the gorge could hold me. — Whether that snake was was harmless. Or whether I could get my extension Au Pair back into the US after taking her with us on an international trip. With Federal Agents inspecting documents of passengers […]

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What If Only One Host Parent is a U.S. Citizen?

by cv harquail February 28, 2017
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Here’s one of those “finer points” of the Host Parenting situation where we need some of you Agency experts to weigh in. The US State Department (not the Au Pair Agencies themselves) “(1) Require that the host parents are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents”. What happens when one parent IS a citizen but the […]

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Au Pair Departs in a Huff, Then Moves In Next Door

by cv harquail February 20, 2017
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This LongIslandHostMom’s experience triggered PTSD for me.  All the feels. The ugly, angry resentful feels. All I could think about, after I readLongIslandHostMom’s email, was how awful it had been to run into our former, “flame out” au pair, when she showed up for a BBQ at my friend’s beach house with my friend’s nanny, acting […]

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When You Discover Your Au Pair was Driving Under the Influence

by cv harquail February 11, 2017
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Readers, I can’t really preface this one with anything but a request for some wisdom — Dear Au Pair Mom — We have just had an au pair debacle that we are trying to sort through and I was wondering if anyone has any advice. Our au pair asked to use our car to go […]

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Teach Kids to Apologize to The Au Pair

by cv harquail February 6, 2017

Hosting an Au Pair presents us with one opportunity after another to teach our children how to be kind. In many of our conversations here on the blog, we worry about being kind proactively. As adults, we Host Parents spend a lot of time thinking about how to be kind to our Au Pairs, to […]

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How to find South American/ Central American Au Pairs that fit our family’s style

by cv harquail January 30, 2017
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Hello Au Pair Moms! I am in search of our 3rd au pair, perhaps someone from Central or Latin America.  We really loved the German Au Pair we had, and would love another just like her… but I’ve noticed the European Au Pairs are not as available. I live in Chicago, which has a large Hispanic […]

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With Your Au Pair’s Social Life, Be Caring Not Controlling

by cv harquail January 28, 2017
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If you can trust your Au Pair with your children, can’t you trust her with her own Saturday night plans? I wondered this, when I read the email (below) from the OverMonitoredAuPair. I am a BIG believer in knowing how to find your Au Pair in an emergency during his/her off-duty time. I am a […]

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