One Parent One Language Approach

Do all the adults in your household speak the second language? If not, how do you handle this from a practical standpoint?

My wife speaks English and is learning Portuguese. We have two babysitters who speak only Portuguese with them (total of about 22 hours/week). We don't have too many four-way conversations, except in Portuguese.
The kids are adept at switching from English to Portuguese depending on who they are talking to. We have not yet decided how we are going to handle things in the longer term.
— Father of bilingual 2 1/2-year old twins (Portuguese)

If we all need to understand something, we have to do it in English [community language].
Because my husband can't speak the language [Japanese] in depth, we settle many family issues in English.
— Parents of bilingual 11-year old and 7-year old (Japanese)

My husband understands a limited amount of French, but does not really speak it. We speak English with one another, so our children hear our conversations in English. They do not often hear conversations in French unless we are with my friend, a native French-speaker (once a week for a few hours), my parents (much less often as they do not live close by) or family in France (about once a year).
— Mother of bilingual 4-year old and 2 1/2-year old (French)

Father speaks always in Italian to children, even out of the household. Mother speaks always Farsi to children, even out of the household.
— Father of trilingual 8-year old and 3-year old (Italian & Farsi)

Had to always speak French when non-English speaking husband was present [English was the minority language in this case]. Still move into French when French people are present as politesse.
— Mother of bilingual 7-year old and 5-year old (French)

I speak almost completely English to her but her father speaks only Spanish with her. He will not answer her unless she speaks to him in Spanish. She is at this point very verbal and has excellent spoken English and perfect comprehension of Spanish and good speaking abilities.
— Mother of bilingual 2 1/2-year old (Spanish)

She spends more time with Mom, and she will certainly pick up the Chinese, but Dad is not as serious about insisting on the Japanese. He feels that if she gets some of the basics,
that would be enough. Since Dad doesn't know Chinese and Mom doesn't know Japanese, her level will not be the same as if it were reinforced by both parents.
— Father of trilingual 2 year old (Chinese & Japanese)

My husband doesn't speak French so it's sometimes awkward but our daughter doesn't seem to have any problem ... so far. I sometimes "translate", switching from one language to the other.
— Mother of bilingual 1-year old (French)

My spouse does not speak German. I speak to our son in German when we are "alone." We have German language books and I use German terms to identify objects.
— Father of bilingual 20-month old (German)