au pair

Your Brother’s Wedding vs. Her 21st Birthday: Whose priority wins? (Poll)

by cv harquail January 22, 2010
201001222033.jpg

Here’s a tough situation that could use your advice! This host parent is facing what feels like a win/lose situation in a conflict between what the family wants and what the au pair wants. Check out the details, weigh in at the poll, and then offer some advice! Dear AuPairMom Readers– I was so glad […]

93 comments Read the full article →

Letters of Recommendation: For a so-so au pair? (Poll)

by cv harquail January 20, 2010
_3285_2718238377_7bedbf3250.jpg

When your au pair is getting ready to leave you, either to end her year or to extend with a different family, it’s nice to write her a letter of recommendation. Unless, of course, you wouldn’t recommend her to anyone. When the topic of recommendation letters has come up before, you all have been of […]

29 comments Read the full article →

Tough Topic: When your au pair steals from you

by cv harquail January 19, 2010
201001162014.jpg

There are many topics that I have dreaded bringing up here, but I’m going to bring them up anyway with a little bit of warning… I’ll announce in the headline that it’s a “Tough Topic” and everyone will know to treat it gently. One of the painful tough topics is when you discover your au […]

55 comments Read the full article →

How Does Your Au Pair Grow?

by cv harquail January 17, 2010
201001172004.jpg

Truly one of the joys of being a host parent is watching your au pair blossom as a citizen of the world and as as a person. I look back in hindsight now and wish that for each of our au pairs, I had written them a note at the start of their year to […]

7 comments Read the full article →

Haircolor and Au Pairs: What’s up with that?

by cv harquail January 16, 2010
_69_199073841_1dd9330c26.jpg

Last year I made a joke in one post about au pairs spending a lot of money on Garnier Nutrisse hair color, and nobody commented… I thought I was alone in the “What’s with all the hair coloring?” question. I have since discovered, for better or worse, that I am not the only host mom […]

25 comments Read the full article →

EduCare or Regular Au Pair?

by cv harquail January 11, 2010
201001101615.jpg

Have you ever compared the EduCare program to the the regular Au Pair program? If you’ve chosen the EduCare, what swung you over? And, what’s your experience been with EduCare Au Pairs? What’s the EduCare Program? From the website of the US Department of State: The Au Pair program includes the EduCare component. The EduCare […]

80 comments Read the full article →

Protect Your Au Pair’s Off-Duty Time

by cv harquail January 11, 2010
201001102344.jpg

Au Pairs work hard. When they are off duty, they need their downtime. But, if they’re good au pairs, your kids probably like them and enjoy spending time interacting with them. Kids don’t always know the difference between on-duty and off-duty, so it’s our job as host parents to help au pairs protect their downtime. […]

21 comments Read the full article →

Helping Your Au Pair Extend, with Student Status: Advice Wanted

by cv harquail January 10, 2010
201001101458.jpg

Hi Au Pair Mom Readers! Love the site and am totally addicted. The advice is so helpful! I need advice on the subject of college education for my au pair. Our au pair has indicated an interest in attending university here in the U.S. instead of in her home country (Germany). It’s unclear whether she […]

18 comments Read the full article →

This Time Last Year: January 2009

by cv harquail December 31, 2009
_Users_celia_Library_Application-Support_ecto3_cache_BF440331-74AA-4816-9332-7E8024CCF1EF.jpeg

No one is more surprised than me to see how much we’ve covered here on AuPairMom! I can’t believe the number of topics, posts, comments, concerns and wisdom that have appeared here so far– and we’re still going strong! Sometimes it’s hard to remember what we’ve discussed, so here’s a new feature: This Time Last […]

1 comment Read the full article →

O. M. G. My Au Pair is “Sexting”

by cv harquail December 29, 2009
200912291557.jpg

I can’t even figure out how to begin this post! Where do you start, when you find out that your au pair is sending lewd photos of herself from her/your cellphone, and downloading lewd photos of someone else onto her/your computer? We got this request for advice from a host mom who is, to put […]

20 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →