Who’s Hoo? List of Contributors

by cv harquail June 25, 2010

Add your screen name and a brief description to our new List of Contributors! Welcome to Au Pair Mom! Please be sure to check out the “Welcome” tab to see how to navigate through all the goodies here. Use the two search boxes to find posts on specific topics, and Sign Up to get posts […]

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Would you ever hire an AWOL Au Pair?

by cv harquail June 23, 2010
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That’s a rhetorical question. A host mom just sent me a link to a discussion forum wherein a parent was asking for help finding an au pair. This parent doesn’t want just any au pair. This parent wants an au pair who has gone AWOL– who has left an official au pair program & host […]

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Is Your Host Family Handbook Too Long?

by cv harquail June 21, 2010
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Eleven Au Pairs and 12 revisions after first being written, our Host Family Handbook is now, officially, “long”. Excluding examples of kids’ and au pairs’ schedules, and excluding the basic information about emergency phone numbers and the like, our rules/guidelines section runs 16 pages, with almost 4500 words. Is that too long? Host Family Handbook: […]

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What exactly is a Host Family Handbook?

by cv harquail June 21, 2010
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We’ve got a lit of different terms floating around to describe the written information that we give our au pairs. We call them handbooks, manuals, guidelines, and rules. (And who knows what our au pairs call them!) For the purposes of our conversations here on AuPairMom, let’s try to lock down the terminology. A Host […]

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From “All of Us at AuPairMom”: A note

by cv harquail June 18, 2010
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I was just sending an email to Anna, to wish her well with the impending arrival of her new baby, and I *really* wanted to send her hugs from everyone here on the blog. Similarly, a few days ago I emailed another contributor who has been going through chemo, again wanting to send her collective […]

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Itty Bitty Babies: Ups & Downs of Au Pairs for Infants (and new Host Parents)

by cv harquail June 18, 2010
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[[I’m delighted to share with your a Guest Post from a regular contributor, Dorsi. Dorsi noted that she hasn’t seen much on the blog about infants and offered to share her reflections. Reading her post brought back so many memories of those tender first days of being a mom and having to look like I […]

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When Au Pairs Get Tattoos…

by cv harquail June 18, 2010
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Do their moms cry, or only their host moms? Less than half of our au pairs have gotten tattoos, but each time, I’ve worried that I’ve let their moms (and dads) down. Most host parents are of my generation (more or less) so I use my own feelings about permanent body decor as a proxy […]

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Your Au Pair is not a Maid

by cv harquail June 17, 2010
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What’s the difference between an au pair and a maid? In some host families, not very much. Some host families expect their au pairs to do basic housework in addition to caring for children. In the US, “housekeeping”is limited to cleaning up the kids rooms (but in my mind, not vacuuming them), keeping the play […]

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Tip: Insist on the Second-To-Last bus

by cv harquail June 16, 2010
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One of our guidelines is: “Take the second to last bus or train home. Never count on being able to get the very last bus. Always make sure you have a backup.” You might look at that and think we are controlling– but underneath that guideline (like so many others) is a real story of […]

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Why is a good Manny so hard to find?

by cv harquail June 14, 2010
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I can’t believe that I’m over forty, married, and writing a blog post about how to find a good man. Sure, I have some experience in this department– I actually found my self a very nice man (DHD) — but unfortunately I don’t have exactly the right experience to help out those of you who […]

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