Halloween Activities for Au Pairs and Kids

by cv harquail October 27, 2012
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Every holiday gives your kids and your au pair a chance to work together, have fun and build memories with holiday-related crafts and activities. Cultural sharing and just plain ‘ole relationship-buidling happens in the doing of things. Given that Halloween is one of the trio of secular, nation wide cultural holidays (the other two being […]

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Every Parent’s Nightmare (Trigger Alert)

by cv harquail October 26, 2012

This is the kind of post I never wanted to write, but I expect some of us will need a place to express our horror and our very deep sadness about the murder of two NYC children by their nanny.   Please do not read any further if you would prefer to avoid this issue.

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What Can This Host Mom Learn From Her Experience?

by cv harquail October 19, 2012
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It can be so hard to do better with each au pair relationship. I know that I liked to kid myself sometimes that I was actually improving– a better handbook, a clearer understanding of our family’s needs, a nicer au pair room, a sense of the arc of the year, and so on. I actually […]

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Should Your Prospective Au Pair Talk with Your Current Au Pair?

by cv harquail October 12, 2012
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When you are trying to make sure that your potential new au pair has a realistic understanding of what to expect of your family, it seems like it might be a great idea to have the potental au pair talk with the current au pair. Of all people, your current au pair knows your family, your routine, […]

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What’s your Host Parent Mindset?

by cv harquail October 2, 2012
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If the world can be divided into two kinds of people, there are two types of Host Parents: Those who think they were born being perfectly good host parents, thankyouverymuch, and Those who are trying to learn how to be better host parents By virtue of being a reader of AuPairMom, you are obviously one […]

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3 Tips for Cross-Cultural Conversation

by cv harquail September 30, 2012
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When you and your au pair struggle to communicate — even when you both speak English resonably well– it can be hard to know whether the problem is “attitude” or “comprehension”. We see issue a lot in comments about au pairs who are given lists of tasks but don’t do them, or host parents who […]

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What To Do About Au Pair Bath Towels: Folks want to know (Poll)

by cv harquail September 28, 2012
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Dear Au Pair Mom- What do you think about towels. Should I get my au pair her own personal set of towels? I expect to provide towels for our APs, but so far both of our au pairs have gone out and bought their own. I’d told both au pairs not to bring towels from […]

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The Five Actions of Gratitude

by cv harquail September 27, 2012
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Nothing takes the sting out of tough interaction with your au pair than a moment of gratitude for all that s/he does for your and your family. Studies show that regularly reflecting on things that are good and that you can be grateful for help to keep you in a more positive place, no matter […]

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Which bedroom to choose for your Au Pair?

by cv harquail September 26, 2012
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Lucky you- you’re not only getting an au pair, but also you have a choice of rooms for his or her bedroom!   But which bedroom should you choose– the one near the baby? The big one where s/he’d share the kids’ bathroom or the smaller one where she’d have her own bathroom? Or the […]

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How do you assess an Au Pair candidate who has suffered from depression?

by cv harquail September 24, 2012

Dear Au Pair Mom, We are currently looking for a new aupair and I am concerned about an application that the agency has sent to me.  We have hosted girls for ten years from all over the world. Our kids are 11, 10, and 7 years old. One candidate looks especially good, except for few things. […]

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