Safety

The Best $98 You Can Spend on Your New Au Pair

by cv harquail May 20, 2010
201005200738.jpg

One of the best things a host parent can do with a new au pair is to pay some professional driving lessons. Driving lessons are something that you should consider in addition to having the au pair go out driving with one or more host parents, and in addition to having the au pair study […]

11 comments Read the full article →

Rematch with just 2 months to go? Or other options?

by cv harquail May 16, 2010
201005161645.jpg

An “I need advice right away” post from West Coast Mom: Dear Host Moms, Have any of you rematched near the end of your year? We are considering sending the current AP home, after an alarming call from another Mom who witnessed some alarming AP behavior in front of the kids (followed by months of […]

47 comments Read the full article →

Au Pair Advice: New App to Manage Texting While Driving

by cv harquail April 14, 2010

Local mom and blogger Kristen Kemp wrote a post so important that I’m borrowing heavily from it to share with you all. It’s all about: Parental Control Feature to Stop Texting While Driving If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that most host parents are preeetttyyy concerned about safe driving. Talking […]

26 comments Read the full article →

How to Assess an Au Pair Candidate’s Driving Experience

by cv harquail March 23, 2010
201003221642.jpg

Our second au pair had a lot of driving experience back in her Eastern European country. She’d been driving for 3 years, almost every day. Sounded great. This, along with her other great qualities, lead us to match with her. Zoom ahead three months, as we settle her into the Toyota to go out for […]

11 comments Read the full article →

Awkward: It’s not a walk of shame if we know you are safe

by cv harquail March 8, 2010
_il_fullxfull.126248333.jpg

So let’s jump on in to another awkward topic — If your au pair is having fun, safe overnights, and she just wants to make sure you’re not worried, how should she tell you? Should she even tell you? I don’t actually want to know if my au pair is having fun. I do want […]

30 comments Read the full article →

My Au Pair got a speeding ticket

by cv harquail March 1, 2010
201002151558.jpg

Has your au pair ever gotten a speeding ticket? That you know of? Or that you found out about later, after several summonses arrived in the mail? How have you handled this? Tell it to this Host Mom: Our au pair got a speeding ticket– a surprise for her and for me. Now I have […]

25 comments Read the full article →

Flu Shots for Your Au Pair: Polls

by cv harquail October 15, 2009

Let’s “take the temperature” of the AuPairMom community… and see what’s happening in your home about the flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine… 3 Reasons to Take Your Au Pair for a Flu Shot (AuPairMom.com)

Read the full article →

Swim Safely, by following my sister’s rules

by cv harquail June 10, 2009
_3625_3577286386_745e5fccbb.jpg

My sister Julia and her family spend the bulk of their summer at the New Jersey shore, biking between the pool at my dad’s house, the pool at the beach club, the river and the ocean. Only one of these locations has professional lifeguards– the rest of the time we all depend on sensible swimmers […]

5 comments Read the full article →

Rematch. NOW.

by cv harquail February 14, 2009
cat behind post spying vibragiel

There are some times when we make a mistake and can be given a second chance. We may struggle to be forgiven, but we know that we can earn back someone’s trust in us. Then, there are those other times, when we make a mistake and that’s it. We hear stories about au pairs who’ve […]

17 comments Read the full article →

When your Au Pair has a Fender-Bender — Who pays, and what, and how?

by cv harquail September 24, 2008
hound in drivers seat

I have dreaded writing about au pairs and car accidents, because fear of accidents is one of the scariest things about having children, and even scarier when you are entrusting your children to someone else’s driving. Even the best of au pairs can have car accidents. (Heck, even the best of drivers can have accidents!) […]

1 comment Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →