personality conflict

We Discovered Our Au Pair Doesn’t Share Our Family Values

by cv harquail August 20, 2015
6316544589_1d64288ca4_m

For Bothered Host Mom, things started out fine. Then, oops, turns out her au pair wasn’t who she thought she’d be. Now what? Our Au Pair was great — in the beginning. We treated her like a friend and family member, gave her lots of gifts, took her to Vegas for her birthday. She does […]

122 comments Read the full article →

Au Pair is harsh and negative with Host Kids: Can we change her interaction style?

by cv harquail March 27, 2014
3215020854_608960e60c_m

Dear Au Pair Mom Community, I really need your advice about a situation I have where I don’t think “rematch” is feasible (and besides my husband is totally against it). Basically we have had an Au Pair (our 3rd) for the last 9 months. The first 6 months were great. She’s organized, responsible, a good […]

59 comments Read the full article →

Is it a Personality Thing, or a Training Thing, or Some Other Thing?

by cv harquail October 6, 2013
baby tears

Even when we don’t have enough information about the ‘real’ problem between a host parent and an au pair, the action steps are the same: 1. Check your expectations, 2. Talk with each other candidly, and 3. Give each other a chance to change. Here’s an email from a host mom having trouble: Dear Au Pair Mom Readers, […]

57 comments Read the full article →