Bettina Velona's Au Pair Blog

Bettina's Au Pairs Meet Santa

This week, several local Au Pair in America counselors joined forces and held a holiday party for their au pairs in Concord, Massachusetts.   Au pairs enjoyed an international potluck dinner, a visit by Santa, carolling in many different languages, and exchanging small presents.  Over 70 au pairs attended and seemed to enjoy sharing various holiday traditions.  Check out more pictures at Bettina’s Holiday Party Pictures as well as Tina’s Holiday Party Pictures

Brazilian Au Pairs sing a Christmas Song

Boston area au pairs take self defense class

Au Pair in America counselors Bettina Velona, Joyce McGovern and Heike Kriszun thought it important for their au pairs to practice verbal and physical boundary setting.  That is why their November meeting took place at “Together in Motion” in East Arlington, where owner Erik Condo taught his Not-Me! self defense class. During the class, au pairs learned the 5D’s of self defense: decide, deter, disrupt,  disengage, debrief.   Erik’s class focused a lot on how to set verbal and physical boundaries with a potential aggressor and au pairs practiced different methods on how to escape an aggressor.

In order to assure quality service to host families and au pairs, Au Pair in America  counselors are required to hold safety meetings for their au pairs every quarter.  This class satisfies this requirement.

Check out pictures of this event at AuPairSelfDefense

For more information on Erik Kondo’s Not-Me! self defense classes, check out “Not-Me!”

Check out the photos at Bettina’s Cluster Photo Album