interviewing an au pair

Screening Questionnaire to Improve Your Luck In Matching with an Au Pair

by cv harquail November 18, 2017
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We can’t interview our way to a “perfect” Au Pair. It’s the sad truth.   BUT…  we CAN interview well and screen out all the ‘known no’s”… which makes it a bit easier to find an Au Pair candidate with a lot of YES! LongIslandHostMom challenged herself to summarize a lot of our community wisdom to […]

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Step-By-Step Guide to Au Pair Matching, by TexasHostMom (update)

by cv harquail July 24, 2017
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TexasHost Mom’s post, sharing her step-by-step process for contacting Au Pair Candidates, is one of our most read (and most appreciated) posts on AuPairMom. We love her clarity, and not just because sometimes we really just want to execute a good routine rather than obsess about what to do next. Long time readers know that […]

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Finding an Au Pair: Too Much Detail in Our Host Family Letter?

by cv harquail January 3, 2017
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When it comes to writing the materials you use to find and match with an Au Pair, I’m all for being comprehensive. I’d much rather lay it all out for a candidate (and for myself) so that s/he can make an informed choice about whether or not to pursue an interview with us. I’d prefer […]

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When Interviewing Au Pairs, What’s In Your First Email?

by cv harquail October 2, 2016
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How do you present your Host Family when you’re introducing yourselves to Au Pair Candidates? It’s tough to strike the right balance between selling the appealing parts of your Host Family Situation so that you draw applicants towards your family, and being realistic enough to deter candidates who’d be a really poor fit with you […]

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Interviewing Au Pairs, Have You Parents Ever Offered a Host Family Reference?

by cv harquail September 25, 2016
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Does anyone offer a reference to the Au Pair candidates they are interviewing? While every Au Pair candidate lists at least two references that Host Families can email or call, I’ve never heard of Host Parents offering references to Au Pair candidates. This seems to be a vestige from the days when it was assumed that Host […]

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How Do You & Your Partner Coordinate When You’re Interviewing An Au Pair?

by cv harquail September 21, 2016
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Host Parents who have partners have lots of choices about when — and even whether — to involve both parents in the Au Pair Interviewing process.     I’d love to know, among our readers, what the most common patterns are of getting each other involved. Obviously, if you have a spouse or a parenting […]

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“Matching With” Versus “Selecting” an Au Pair: What’s your perspective?

by cv harquail August 12, 2016
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Writing about the AuPair interviewing process, I’m getting a little philosophical. I just wrote this section (below) about the difference between “selecting” and “Matching with” an Au Pair.  Am I crazy? Do you make these sorts of distinctions? Is this how you frame the process yourself? What am I missing?  I’d love your ideas. “Matching […]

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Au Pairs With Manageable Health Issues – Would you match with them?

by cv harquail February 17, 2016
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Two different young women — potential au pairs — write with the same question: How do Host Parents feel about matching with Au Pairs who have manageable health issues? By “manageable”, we mean — well understood, medicated or controlled successfully for a long time, not likely to interfere with caregiving, and not likely to flare up […]

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When It Makes Sense to Cancel Your Au Pair Match

by cv harquail November 16, 2015
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Sometimes with big decisions we feel some “buyer’s remorse”.   Maybe you should’ve gotten a station wagon instead of a mini-van? Or the size 12 instead of the size 10…? Often, the buyer’s remorse just goes away. Other times, you take the jeans back to Target and exchange them for a larger size. Whatever. That’s […]

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Improving the Matching Process: 10 Things I Wish Au Pairs Would Do

by Texas HM May 21, 2014
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Matching well matters — for both Host Parents and Au Pairs. Asking good questions and getting thoughtful answers helps a lot when it comes to finding a good match, but there’s more that host parents and Au Pairs can do.  TexasHM had some great ideas (I italicized the points I particularly loved): “In the matching […]

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