Auf deutsch, bitte!

For the past 6.5 years, in an effort to raise our children bilingually, hubby and I conversed with them in our mother tongues - he in German and I in English.

This was simple for me. Not only is English my mother tongue, it is also spoken fluently by about half of hubby's family as well as most of our social circle in Berlin. I almost never needed to switch between English and German.

Unfortunately, neither did hubby. In addition to our predominately English-speaking home and social life, he works for a British company and, therefore, speaks English at work almost exclusively. As a result, he has endured years of constant reminders to speak to our children auf deutsch from his family, the school teachers, our pediatrician and random strangers - but mostly from me.

Now I am in Mississauga with the children, minus hubby. I have developed a newfound appreciation for the role he played during our time in Berlin as the sole German-speaking adult of the household. That role is now mine, and it is not an easy one.

There is noone in my daily life that I can converse in German with, save for our children. I find it extremely difficult instantaneously switching from an English conversation, to German, and back again whilst at the dinner table, at the grocery store, and so on. I have given up trying to help our children with their homework in German. It is so frustrating at time, I have all but thrown in the towel. If it were not for the encouragement of friends and family, I probably would have.

I am in the process of brainstorming ideas in coping with the constant language switch. All I have thought of so far is training our children to keep saying "Auf deutsch, bitte!" to me until I switch to German. Do any of you have more ideas?