Anonymous
03/13/2019 20:12
Subject: Re:For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is what drives me crazy.
APs complaining about American diets, when they can easily eat like they do at home.
I would say my family is in the middle. We have young kids and full time working parents. We eat junk and at times, healthy.
BUT, we have plenty of veggies, fruits, rice, pasta, and chicken. I have had to say to a couple of APs -- if you want to eat meals similar to home, then make something! Nothing is stopping you. I am happy to buy staples that I may not otherwise have within reason.
But they never make it. I guess that want me to do that. I don't.
This. Our AP literally looks like she’s forcing herself to eat dinner sometimes. We do not make her eat anything. Our only general rule is to try new foods for a couple bites (mostly for the kids but AP is also supposed to be a role model). Our last one had no problem picking out the item she didn’t like or eating other dishes at dinner, then stating she didn’t like something if the kids ask.
I am not a terrible cook. AP has been surprisingly inflexible about anything other than food similar to her native cuisine. We state up front the kinds of food we like to eat and cook, but AP ignored a lot or claimed everything sounded fine during matching (which actually was a disaster with driving.)
Current AP has cooked native food for herself about 3 times in the last 6 months.
You don't force an adult/guest in your home to take a few bites of your food. Let her cook for herself. Maybe you are not a great cook, at least for her.
There is no forcing. And she doesn’t bother to cook for herself. Don’t selectively read and judge.
That being said, maybe she doesn’t realize how rude she’s being?
Anonymous
03/13/2019 18:52
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Two out of three German APs were the same, their moms somehow expected me to mother their daughters as if they were 8 years old. Don’t send your child overseas if you haven’t raised them to be adults.
Same. I can't with German APs anymore. They don't have the skills that I consider typical for a 20-something.
Anonymous
03/13/2019 14:17
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
the special diets for non-health, non-religious reasons are annoying. I don't buy separate groceries for our AP, aside from a few things that she likes. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer, I ate what my HF ate. Do you know what I missed the most? Pancakes! I used my own money to get ingredients for it. I agreed to a cultural immersion. end of story.
Anonymous
03/13/2019 13:02
Subject: Re:For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is what drives me crazy.
APs complaining about American diets, when they can easily eat like they do at home.
I would say my family is in the middle. We have young kids and full time working parents. We eat junk and at times, healthy.
BUT, we have plenty of veggies, fruits, rice, pasta, and chicken. I have had to say to a couple of APs -- if you want to eat meals similar to home, then make something! Nothing is stopping you. I am happy to buy staples that I may not otherwise have within reason.
But they never make it. I guess that want me to do that. I don't.
This. Our AP literally looks like she’s forcing herself to eat dinner sometimes. We do not make her eat anything. Our only general rule is to try new foods for a couple bites (mostly for the kids but AP is also supposed to be a role model). Our last one had no problem picking out the item she didn’t like or eating other dishes at dinner, then stating she didn’t like something if the kids ask.
I am not a terrible cook. AP has been surprisingly inflexible about anything other than food similar to her native cuisine. We state up front the kinds of food we like to eat and cook, but AP ignored a lot or claimed everything sounded fine during matching (which actually was a disaster with driving.)
Current AP has cooked native food for herself about 3 times in the last 6 months.
You don't force an adult/guest in your home to take a few bites of your food. Let her cook for herself. Maybe you are not a great cook, at least for her.
Anonymous
03/13/2019 12:42
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Two out of three German APs were the same, their moms somehow expected me to mother their daughters as if they were 8 years old. Don’t send your child overseas if you haven’t raised them to be adults.
Anonymous
03/13/2019 11:23
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Our 19yr old German was definitely in the “no simple life skills” camp. It quickly became apparent that she’d never had to do anything for herself and all was done for her by mom. Including fighting any battles, as we later learned. Sigh.
Yup, same with our Swedish AP. Her parents were sending her care packages twice a week---and she was only with us for a month until rematch. cut the cord!
Anonymous
03/13/2019 09:51
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Our 19yr old German was definitely in the “no simple life skills” camp. It quickly became apparent that she’d never had to do anything for herself and all was done for her by mom. Including fighting any battles, as we later learned. Sigh.
Anonymous
03/13/2019 08:56
Subject: Re:For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
I am continually amazed that someone would show up as an au pair without any kitchen or home skills at all. If I was sending my teenager off to take care of someone's children in a foreign country for a year, I would make sure he or she knew how to make a simple dish for themselves, boil an egg, do their own laundry, know how to lock the door and turn off the lights behind them. I'm not sure what the expectation is--an all inclusive resort? Having grown up in a single parent family, I was doing all of these things in middle school but I understand children in first world countries are quite sheltered these days. Still, it seems amazing one would go off to be an au pair or to live on their own in any situation with no grasp of simple life skills.
Anonymous
03/13/2019 07:36
Subject: Re:For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Here is what drives me crazy.
APs complaining about American diets, when they can easily eat like they do at home.
I would say my family is in the middle. We have young kids and full time working parents. We eat junk and at times, healthy.
BUT, we have plenty of veggies, fruits, rice, pasta, and chicken. I have had to say to a couple of APs -- if you want to eat meals similar to home, then make something! Nothing is stopping you. I am happy to buy staples that I may not otherwise have within reason.
But they never make it. I guess that want me to do that. I don't.
This. Our AP literally looks like she’s forcing herself to eat dinner sometimes. We do not make her eat anything. Our only general rule is to try new foods for a couple bites (mostly for the kids but AP is also supposed to be a role model). Our last one had no problem picking out the item she didn’t like or eating other dishes at dinner, then stating she didn’t like something if the kids ask.
I am not a terrible cook. AP has been surprisingly inflexible about anything other than food similar to her native cuisine. We state up front the kinds of food we like to eat and cook, but AP ignored a lot or claimed everything sounded fine during matching (which actually was a disaster with driving.)
Current AP has cooked native food for herself about 3 times in the last 6 months.
Anonymous
03/12/2019 20:59
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Organic foods are a gigantic scam anyway
Oh yes, the more chemicals in our food, water, and air, the better, just ask the bees!
everything is a chemical....
Anonymous
03/12/2019 15:31
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Anonymous wrote:Organic foods are a gigantic scam anyway
Oh yes, the more chemicals in our food, water, and air, the better, just ask the bees!
Anonymous
03/12/2019 15:19
Subject: Re:For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
I think I'm going to thank our former APs for their enthusiastic embracing of our family's food culture! A couple of years ago, we were visiting one of them and she reminded me that she and her AP friend always enjoyed a particular type of leftover pasta for lunch. But even the few vegetarians we had were easy going, willing to cook/warm up meat dishes for our children, and never had all that many special requests. It sounds like this new generation of APs is a pain.
Anonymous
03/12/2019 15:07
Subject: Re:For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Here is what drives me crazy.
APs complaining about American diets, when they can easily eat like they do at home.
I would say my family is in the middle. We have young kids and full time working parents. We eat junk and at times, healthy.
BUT, we have plenty of veggies, fruits, rice, pasta, and chicken. I have had to say to a couple of APs -- if you want to eat meals similar to home, then make something! Nothing is stopping you. I am happy to buy staples that I may not otherwise have within reason.
But they never make it. I guess that want me to do that. I don't.
APs complaining about American diets, when they can easily eat like they do at home.
I would say my family is in the middle. We have young kids and full time working parents. We eat junk and at times, healthy.
BUT, we have plenty of veggies, fruits, rice, pasta, and chicken. I have had to say to a couple of APs -- if you want to eat meals similar to home, then make something! Nothing is stopping you. I am happy to buy staples that I may not otherwise have within reason.
But they never make it. I guess that want me to do that. I don't.
Anonymous
03/11/2019 12:07
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
Your guests don't get to dictate what you cook when you invite them over. That's the same for the Au Pair.
She can help herself to what you already have. Then you can be nice and provide a few extra things for her, but then she's on her own.
Former AP.
She can help herself to what you already have. Then you can be nice and provide a few extra things for her, but then she's on her own.
Former AP.
Anonymous
03/10/2019 22:39
Subject: For the love of God, stop it with the special diets
When my kids were toddlers my neighbor gave me the best advice I ever got as a parent. She told me they really only eat extremely healthy foods at home: fruits, veggies, healthy grains and lean meats. They don’t keep “treats” or processed foods at all. That way they could have 2-3 meals outside the house each week (dining out, school lunches, and events with friends) and never had to feel like on the balance her kids were eating unhealthy foods.
If you live for one year with a family and they don’t eat “healthy” enough, you have so many other years of your life to make up for it. Nobody says this is your diet forever!!
If you live for one year with a family and they don’t eat “healthy” enough, you have so many other years of your life to make up for it. Nobody says this is your diet forever!!