Alright, so I will start

[Anonymous]

I was happy when I saw a dedicated discussion on AP issues. AP-related questions tend to go off the wrong tangent.

Anyway, in the spirit of the season, do you have your AP work on Thanksgiving and/or Black Friday?

I usually involve our AP in making the traditional meal and my husband watches the kids. Friday is a work day for her because I am working too.

[Anonymous]

On Thanksgiving, my au pair will work in the early part of the day while I'm scrambling around to finish cooking (I'm hosting). When the celebration starts in early afternoon she won't be working.

She'll work on Friday but likely less than usual. My husband has to go into the office and I'll want a little time with my visiting family. My kids will be around too but au pair can help with dressing them, potty, cooking for them, etc when I just want to chill a little.

[Anonymous]

AP has Black Friday, Sat/Sun off. She will have worked the prior 3 Sat. nights and I try to balance (plus this is her "full weekend off").

On Thanksgiving, may ask for some help in the AM. My kids are 5 & 8 so they don't need constant supervision. They likely will entertain themselves for most of AM until family starts arriving.

[Anonymous]

We will take our AP to the family's house for dinner on Thursday, and she will have off the rest of the weekend.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for getting this started! I'm thrilled that there is an AP section and hope it takes off. I go on aupairmom.com frequently, but there don't seem to be all that many people who post, so you don't get a wealth of responses.

About Thanksgiving, both my husband and I are working all week except for Thursday. She has Thursday off of course, but will likely join us for dinner at my parent's house. Then back to work on Friday.

For Christmas, similarly, we have to work every day except Christmas day. She will have off Christmas day and then be working the other days, although probably shorter days since I'm sure work will be easy for us.

We give her off the Federal holidays if we're off work. I like to take those as family days myself since they are some of the few days we're all off together and don't have typical weekend running around to do.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't make sense to give an au pair the Thanksgiving and Black Friday holidays off. It makes more sense to let her off New Year's Eve. Thanksgiving is an american holiday so unlike nannies who might be spending it with their own families, au pairs have nothing Thanksgiving related to do.

You should include your Au Pair in your Thanksgiving plan as a member of the family which means doing some of the cooking not being a guest and be off until dinner is ready.

[Anonymous]

My AP is working partial days Wednesday and Friday. Thursday she's joining us as a "member of the family", although I'm sure she'll play with the kids while I help my mom get things ready (we go to my mom's house for dinner)...

[Anonymous]

Our AP had Thanksgiving and Black Friday off because we didn't need her. She, like APs past, did the Thanksgiving night/Black Friday morning shopping.

We also give NYE off. We're not NYE types anyway, but also, our LCC strongly encourages families to give NYE off.

[Anonymous]

We also give our AP NYE (and actually the whole weekend before) off. I've never heard of host parents having their ap work on NYE.