If you want to change host families is it hard to do?
Posted by Angie Taylor 8 years 6 months ago
Answers
I personally did not change families however a few of my friends told me their experiences. Changing host families is thought of within AFS as a last resort. Foreign Exchange has a lot of highs and lows so they don't want students to just change families because there was an argument or something. So understandably AFS discourages this and tries to have a mediator (your Liaison) work out what ever the issue is. If the Liaison thinks it can be worked out without changing then usually you cannot change unless you start climbing the ladder of administration (which I don't recommend). What you have to understand is that AFS is a volunteer organization. The host families are volunteers, and most of the administration is volunteers. Depending on your host family and your host families local chapter you may have a vastly difference experience than others when dealing with the administration.
TL;DR
Can you change? Yes.
Is it easy? No/Depends.
I didn't change host families, but at some point I thought about it. I wasn't getting along with my host mom but I only had two months of the program left. Also she was the head of the local chapter. Technically I could do it(not sure how the process would go sorry I can't answer that) but I felt like I couldn't! I would have had to face her at every meeting. Disclaimer: I can't say that she was a bad person at all though. We just didn't mix well.