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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't know that we have a gossip issue on our hands, but our AP has said a few things about how big other family's houses are or that another AP has her own car to use or whatever.  It does bother me, but there's not a whole lot you can do.  If she said stuff like that all the time, though, I think I'd have to confront it.  "We are following the rules of the program and are trying very hard to make you feel welcome.  It is starting to sound like you're unhappy with our family.  If you are not happy here, then let's engage our LCC to come up with some solutions."[/quote]

I am always worried about this, since I think we are on the less-wealthy end of families with APs in our area.  Our house is quite small, and we only have 1 car (though, since we don't require our APs to drive, we frequently get APs who don't have licenses, so this isn't an issue).  We try to be kind, generous people, and to provide flexibility to the AP to the extent we can, but we definitely don't (can't) provide all of the amenities that many APs in the area seem to have.  (E.g. we don't go on vacations except to see family, so we haven't been able to provide fun vacation experiences in interesting locations.)  So far we have been lucky to have had APs who do not complain or hint about things like that; I think our APs have generally been happy, and made the most of their experiences through friends, experiencing new culture, new city, travelling with friends, etc.  Back to the original post topic, I think if you are a kind host family and have a good, mature AP, "gossip" in the AP circle should not be a problem.  We have spoken to friends of our APs who have stories of the best "amenities," but were unhappy because the family was unkind, abusive in other ways, etc.  Each family and each situation is different, and hopefully a mature AP will realize that.[/quote]

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