From Au Pair to No Pair

So, I think we have finally recovered from all our illnesses. While there is still some hacking, heaving and nose running, I think we finally have everything under control and are ready to get back to life.

Or so I thought.....

I had previously written long long ago that we were getting a new au pair from Colombia. We had 2 previous au pairs that were absolutely wonderful, and one that was absolutely crazy. I had not written about our now No Pair much since I knew she knew of this blog, but now....oh well, here goes...

On Monday night she came to me and said she needed to talk to me after the children went to bed. Uh Oh, already a trouble sign. We had all sorts of interesting interactions with her, and occasional interesting behavior, but she was great with the kids, and always ready and always able to show up on time when needed, and seemed responsible, so we just kind of watched it. So this past Monday she sat me down and told me that although she loved the children and the job, she just was not comfortable being around us, and had to leave as soon as possible. After numerous conversations with the area coordinator, and her, she packed up her bags, and ran out the door early Thursday morning, never to be seen or heard from again.

So, this is kind of annoying. Just a bit. Well, ok alot. It is not like I will horribly miss her, but the kids are a bit upset, and I need a week or so to figure out our situation. After a few more days we decided that we are officially done with the au pair program, since we have lots of resources locally, and Conor will be heading to kindergarten in the fall. There were a variety of other factors that went into this decision, including the way the company handles your ability to interview prior host families of in country au pairs, and the fact that we would like our house back to ourselves.

So, I have been running around like crazy trying to figure out what our schedule will be for next week, and what my needs are. This is of course further complicated by all of Conor's allergies. Not only is the peanut allergy a big problem, but he is also severely allergic to cats, and can not go anywhere cats may be.

So, a new saga in our life begins......Lets call this the No Pair chapter.