u/scma2

Hello everyone!

We are a multinational family (French/Brazilian) living in France, raising our 1-year-old son bilingual. My native language is Portuguese, but I speak French as fluently as it gets and it has truly become second nature to me. My husband is French, he is learning Portuguese (currently around A2, maybe B1 level), though we communicate exclusively in French at home and don't really practice Portuguese together.

Since our son was born, we’ve been using the OPOL method, with me speaking exclusively Portuguese to him, and my husband speaking French. My mother and I are his only local sources of Portuguese. I spend more time with him than my husband does, we have many books in Portuguese which he loves to "read", I also have a lot of yoto MYO content in Portuguese, so overall he gets a good amount of home exposure from me. We travel to Brazil yearly and at least once a year we have brazilian family/friends over, which I count on to boost his language skills... But everything else in his daily environment is French, from daycare (part-time), to my husband's family, friends, etc.

Here is my dilemma: I feel uncomfortable speaking Portuguese to my son if the conversation involves others who don't speak it! While I feel completely fine speaking it in front of my husband, who appreciates the extra exposure, I feel awkward not speaking french when picking my son up from daycare, visiting my husband’s family, or at the doctor’s office, for example... I worry about how this will play out as he grows up, particularly when he has friends over or when we are in group settings.

I understand the core principles of raising bilingual children:

• Consistency is key to prevent passive bilingualism or language rejection later on.
• Maximizing exposure to the minority language is crucial.
• Many here advise never switching languages just to accommodate people around you.

However, I'm looking for alternative experiences and maybe some success stories from people who took a different path.

Is strict OPOL truly the only path to success?

If I switch to French in these public or social situations, will it cause negative consequences, like him insisting on speaking French with me even when it's just us or feeling that Portuguese is something to be ashamed of?

Does anyone have a success story where you occasionally switched to the majority language in public, yet your child still grew up actively speaking and embracing the minority language?

I would love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and any advice you might have!

Thank you! :)

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice or to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I have endometriosis, and 5 months ago, I finally followed my gynecologist's advice and got the Kyleena IUD. My doctor chose this one because of the lower hormone dose, and she mentioned it might take about 3 months for my body to adjust.

Fast forward to now (5 months in), and things aren't going great:

• I am still experiencing pain almost every single day.
• My cycles are irregular, my periods haven't stopped... While they are much lighter than before, they are completely unpredictable and sometimes I have light bleeding every week.

I’m starting to wonder if the hormone dose in Kyleena is simply too low to manage my endo symptoms effectively. I’m considering asking my doctor to switch to Mirena, hoping that a higher dose might finally stop my cycle completely and, more importantly, help with the daily pain.

Has anyone here made the switch from a lower to a higher IUD dose? Did it make a difference for your pain or help stop the irregular bleeding? Or did you find that IUDs in general just didn't work for your endo?

I’d love to hear your experiences before I head back to my specialist. Thank you!