Visitors and Guests

Principle: We’d like you to use good judgment in people who visit the house, and to make sure they respect our home and our privacy.

  1. When you are on-duty, you are welcome to have 1-2 other Au Pairs and their similar age kids, but Child1 and Child2 should always be your top priority. You should feel free to occasionally offer visitors lunch or snacks.
  2. When you are off-duty, you are welcome to have 1-2 visitors over to the house. If more than one person is visiting or when watching movies with friends at night, please use the TV downstairs. Please do not have guests in other parts of the house. Make sure that you are available to answer the door when your friends arrive, and to walk them to the door when they leave.
  3. Please ask your friends to be quiet when coming in and out of the house when we or the children are asleep. Be conscious of the volume of your conversations.
  4. You should be very careful about whom you invite over, and make sure they are careful in our home and with our things. When you would like to have unfamiliar guests over when we will not be home, please let us know.
  5. No one may smoke in the home, on the porches, or in the yard at any time.
  6. No male overnight guests and no male visitors ever when we are not home.

{ 1 comment }

Juanita Rogers February 25, 2009 at 4:44 am

I would also add something about when your (AuPair Mom)’s friends come over. Sometimes if you have quite an outgoing Au Pair, they will assume you don’t mind them hanging around while you are entertaining, having lunch with your best friend etc. My guideline for this is firstly see what the Au Pair is like (very sociable or hides in their room) then tackle the issue appropriately. If very sociable, and she is attending every social occasion you arrange for yourself at home, gently let her know that occasionally you will invite her to socialize with your friends but that it may not always be convenient. If you have a hider, then encourage them to come out even if for 5 or 10 minutes, so that her language and social skills can be improved, and so that she doesn’t end up feeling miserable and home sick because she is seeing no one but you and the kids. Then have the “two week chat” – at the end of the first two or three weeks it is always good to have a review session and this is a good time to tackle these issues.

I am writing from the UK, but our issues are the same and your site has been really helpful to me, despite my oldest child now being 20, and me being an experienced Au Pair Mom. Do any of you ever have male au pairs, as I would be glad to tell of my (mostly good) experiences as a Mom of 4 boys with male Au Pairs.

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