Au Pair Appreciation

Do you know what your Au Pair *needs* from you?

by cv harquail September 15, 2017
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A former babysitter and family friend got engaged last week, and to help her celebrate I bought her a few books on how to have a great marriage. (I know, kindof weird, but I am a BIG BELIEVER in trying to learn intentionally, especially when you can anticipate how your life will be changing.) Flipping […]

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What About Being an Au Pair Host Parent “Sparks Joy”?

by cv harquail July 20, 2015
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Sparks Joy? If you aren’t one of the three million people who bought this book, or one of the 17 million people I’ve talked to about it, then you might not have thought about a possible link between being an Au Pair Host Parent and The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. If you are one […]

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Seventh Annual International Au Pair Appreciation Week: Open Thread

by cv harquail May 17, 2015
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Au Pair Appreciation Week is our chance as host moms and dads to celebrate what we enjoy the most about having au pairs in our family lives. Although moms and dads who ask for advice here on AuPairMom are occasionally accused of being grumpy, demanding, and/or hard to live with, we all know that we wouldn’t […]

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Upcoming Celebrations on AuPairMom: Mothers Day & AuPair Appreciation Week

by cv harquail May 7, 2015
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Spring has sprung, which means it’s time to celebrate! We celebrate daffodils, columbines, and first bloomers in the garden.  Ice cream trucks, camp signup forms, and that new pair of FitFlops that you deserve. The pair with sequins. And, here on AuPairMom, we celebrate Mother’s Day and AuPairAppreciation week! For both events, we’ll have a focused […]

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I Am Grateful for Our Au Pair, Because… : Open Thread Nov 20

by cv harquail November 20, 2014
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My family is on our way to Ohio to see Grandma perform in The Glass Menagerie and to celebrate her 8oth Birthday! It was on a long drive to Ohio back in 2008 when I realized that we needed  AuPairMom — so in celebration of (yet another) 8.5 hour ride, here’s an open thread for the […]

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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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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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Au Pair Appreciation: Sharing Her Language and Extending Herself

by cv harquail February 23, 2014
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Every morning and evening I am thankful for our  au pair, S. She arrived in January 2013 to take care of our son,  who was 8 months old at the time. S was trained to be an au pair in a foreign run orphanage for handicapped and other abandoned children and orphans in Zhengzhou, China. […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: Rescues Trapped Hamster!

by cv harquail February 8, 2014
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There are some Au Pair Appreciation stories that we could never anticipate, not in a million aupairyears. Such as this story of an Au Pair with real ‘derring do’, as my grandmum would call it. Courtesy of our own TakingAComputerLunch: Crazy stuff always happens in our house, but because we have a child with special […]

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Au Pair Appreciation: 3 Ways To Make Your Words Matter

by cv harquail February 6, 2014
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“Why”, “Because”, and “For Example” are some of my favorite words. As a trained social scientist, I’ve been taught to hunt down the reasons, the connections, and the proof behind every claim I make in a research paper.  In research papers you have to persuade people that what you’ve found is real. And it turns […]

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