Proud mummy of bilingual children

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We are raising our kids bilingual (French/English). We live in the UK but I have relatives in France.
The decision was fairly easy to make. How else would the kids communicate with their grandparents if they did not speak any French?
So when our son Dylan was born, I tried to speak French to him as much as possible but it proved to be rather difficult.
I tried to speak French to him whenever Trevor (my husband) was not around (Trevor does not speak French at all). We watched French cartoons and read French books but it just was not enough. As I worked full-time and Dylan had an English-speaking childminder at the time, his exposure to the English language was far greater that his exposure to French.
However, even if he could not speak any French until the age of 4 or 5 (except for a few words here and there), I knew he could understand pretty much everything.
Now aged 6, Dylan can speak French rather well (but speaks with a British accent and makes a lot of grammatical mistakes). But that's OK. He can communicate with his grandparents and that's fine (for now).
When Ryan was born, I did not want to make the same mistake... I wanted to increase his exposure to French and decided to speak French to him from the start, even in the presence of Trevor. Surprisingly enough, even Dylan started to speak French to Ryan (probably because he did not want to feel left out) so Dylan's French improved even more after his brother's birth.
To reinforce their learning, we decided to get a French au-pair. This is doing wonders! She has only been with us for a week and a bit, but Ryan is learning a new word (a French word) every day!
It is brilliant. I am really happy but I do worry a little.
What if the opposite happens to Ryan? What if English becomes the minority language? I would not want that for him/them. I want them to be perfectly bilingual (or, if not possible, for English to be their majority language. We are raising our kids in the UK after all).
Anyway let's wait and see what happens. There is no point worrying about something that has not happened yet :).
Bilingualism is simply amazing. It is a gift that is worth cultivating. It comes with a lot of effort and dedication but it is so rewarding.
I am so proud of raising my children bilingual :).

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