personality conflicts

Should We Extend? Au Pair is Great, but also Boring

by cv harquail January 20, 2016
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I laughed out loud at the subject line of the email that sent this issue to Au Pair Mom. It’s almost — but not quite– a luxury to imagine being bothered by a “boring” Au Pair, if this Au Pair comes on the heels of a “Flameout”, a “Party Girl”, or a “Couch Potato”.  Not […]

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What if I actually don’t like my new Au Pair’s personality?

by cv harquail December 14, 2012
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Personality matters, but we struggle to figure out how much we should let it matter. Au Pairs are caregivers, roommates, family members, and in the best of situation, they become our friends. But for some reason, many of us feel awkward making decisions about au pairs based on whether we actually like their personalities. It […]

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Can this relationship be saved? “Uncomfortable” or something else?

by cv harquail August 19, 2009
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“Our Au Pair tells us that she is ‘uncomfortable’.” … but what does this really mean? Host parents, can you help with this request for advice? This is our first aupair…(well our very first decided she couldnt handle it and went home after 1 month). She is 22 years old from Colombia and has been […]

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Can this relationship be saved? Our Au Pair rubs me the wrong way….

by cv harquail April 15, 2009
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Sometimes a host parent’s complaints about an au pair seem legitimate. Sometimes the complaints don’t seem legitimate. And sometimes, the host parent just really isn’t sure. Here’s a long request for advice from Anonymous . She sets it up as though she might be a bad person… and let me tell you that by the […]

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