guests

Establishing Expectations when an Au Pair Has Guests

by cv harquail November 30, 2011

There’s something about hosting a friend of relative of your au pair that can mess with the fine balance between “part of the family”&  “childcare provider” and between “host mom” and “house elf/slave”. For lots of us, we forget to check our assumptions about how we should act towards other people’s guests, how much of […]

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The Boyfriend-Back-Home: Always bad news?

by cv harquail September 1, 2009
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We got an interesting request for advice from a host mom who just found out that her incoming au pair has gotten a BBH — a Boyfriend-Back-Home. This mom is concerned because her first au pair – host mom experience was marred by her au pair’s devotion to the BBH over her commitment to the […]

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“No Room at the Inn” because AP changed her plans. Now what? (Poll)

by cv harquail August 22, 2009
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My au pair’s vacation is coming up. To cover for her, we’re having both sets of grandparents come stay over. They’ll be here for a month, but will overlap for a little over a week. The overlap will occur while the AP is on vacation. We have a smallish house – 3 bedrooms. Our “guest […]

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Setting Guidelines when your Au Pair has guests

by cv harquail April 23, 2009
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When an au pair has guests come to visit, it is tempting for the Host Parents to give the au pair lots of ‘extras’– extra time off, extra flexibility, extra food and space, and basically to try to accommodate their au pair’s expected desire to spend time with the visiting friend or family member. This […]

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Safety: Guidelines

by cv harquail May 15, 2008

First and foremost, your job is to make sure that you, Child1 and Child2 are safe. Never hit or shake the children. If long bouts of bad behavior ever frustrate you, it’s okay to tell the child to take a time out, have them sit in a safe place and take time to regain your […]

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AuPair Guidelines

by cv harquail May 14, 2008

Here is a sample of what you might use as “Au Pair Guidelines” Feel free to cut & paste, add, revise, whatever, to make these guidelines fit with your family practices and priorities. If you come up with some good guidelines, please add them to the Comments section! (Note: It is easy to personalize these […]

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