when your au pair departs

Untangling and Saying Goodbye to Long-Term Au Pair

by cv harquail February 2, 2016
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Here’s a situation that’s a real outlier — this Host Family has had their same Au Pair for 8 years. First, as an Au Pair, then as a visiting (live in) student. Even though it’s an uncommon situation, I thought you readers might enjoy the whole story and have ideas to share. Now it’s time […]

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Saying Goodbye to a Host Toddler: Ideas?

by cv harquail June 20, 2014
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“You have to stay forever, ” the little girl tells me. “We love you more than your real family.” Our first au pair adored our first child. She sang to her, read to her, dressed her up in crazy outfits, taught her how to blow dandelion puffs, and rocked her to sleep in her arms. I think […]

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Forget Overlap: Help Me Get My Departing Au Pair Out The Door!

by cv harquail February 20, 2014
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I need help handling the transition between our departing au pair and our arriving au pair. I’m nearing the end of our year with our very AP, who is 26, from China, with excellent English.  Our AP#1 is kind and patient with our 13-month baby girl.  She is also immature. AP#1’s term ends in less […]

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Departure Gift Ideas– For Not-So-Great Au Pair

by cv harquail October 15, 2013
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“We only have to endure our au pair for 6 more weeks!”, writes a Host mom.” Yes, endure. Very long story, but we have had a mediocre au pair for the past 10 + months. She only wants to party, lies consistently, does not respect curfew, treats our children like potato sacks, and I have […]

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Ending the Au Pair Year on the Right Note, by Host Mom TACL

by cv harquail July 29, 2011
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SuperHost Mom and contributing AuPairMom Advisor TACL (Taking a Computer Lunch) noticed that the blog has been rather quiet of late. Using her Masterpiece Theatre Poirot and Holmes skills, she correctly deduced that I’ve been overwhelmed enough by work that I haven’t been able to keep up. As always, lots of work is good for […]

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The 2nd Best Goodbye Gift You Can Give Your Au Pair

by cv harquail May 15, 2010
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Last year one of our most active and committed community members “Taking a Computer Lunch“, casually mentioned something that she does for all of her au pairs shortly before they depart. She gives them the gift of “The Box“. What is “The Box”? We give our APs the biggest box their home countries permit, either […]

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Au Pair Abruptly Quits, then wants to come back to see kids. Really? (poll)

by cv harquail January 28, 2010
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Here’s a painful situation, about which this host mom could use some good advice. I’m sure that this kind of situation has happened to other families who’ve gone into rematch [Something similar happened to us with our flame-out au pair, and so reading this mom’s email got me all mad all over again. What went […]

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Good Bye, Good Luck from exAuPairMom

by cv harquail October 13, 2009
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I always wonder about “the rest of the story” when I get a notice that someone has unsubscribed from the email newsletter .. for the reason that “the content is no longer valid”. I usually take that to mean “we don’t have an au pair anymore”. Over the weekend we got this letter from a […]

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Checkout Task List: Back by popular demand

by cv harquail August 26, 2009
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(Several readers have asked to see this list again… turns out it’s been hard to find, probably I need to use more & better tags. Until the rainy day when I get to play with the folksonomy, here’s the Checkout Task List! originally posted Aug 25, 2008) When your aupair is getting ready to leave […]

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Settling Accounts — *Before* she departs

by cv harquail August 17, 2009
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The comment from PA AuPair mom in the post about docking the au pair’s pay sent a chill down my spine, and reminded me that I need to write and post this bit of advice: Before your Au Pair leaves, be sure to settle all accounts with her. This advice is not for host parents […]

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