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I am not a parent (and FWIW I'm not from a multilingual home) but my fiancee grew up in a househould with her mom (and two adopted siblings) primarily speaking Korean. She was not encouraged to speak it, in fact she was probably discouraged from it because her mother wanted her to fit in with her classmates. At the time of her birth, Vietnam was over for about a year and there was still a lot of racism towards those who looked Asian. Perhaps this made her life a little easier but it didn't make it easy. She understands a lot of Korean and speaks a little but she is not fluent.
This stands in stark contrast to how her brother and sister-in-law are raising their two Korean children. They encourage them to speak Korean almost entirely at home and at church. One daughter is already pretty fluent in both English and Korean (at 6 years old) and the other is on her way to understanding and speaking both very well (at 4 years old). Their opinion is that deeper understanding of English is pretty much guaranteed from their experience(s) at school and with friends so they focus as much as they can on Korean while at home. The only problem is that Alison (the 6 year old) is very self-conscious about speaking Korean when non-Koreans are around. She was blown away when a very American (read white) looking family friend spoke to her only in Korean (he was stationed there while in the Army). I think she'll grow out of the embarrasment but even if she doesn't she will have an advantage over many other American children.
I absolutely believe kids should be encouraged to learn a second or third language as it gives them more options and keeps them more connected to their roots. Kids will naturally be embarrassed by something that makes them different from everyone else but I think we're in a much more understanding time and whatever you can do to instill pride in their ancestry would help.
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Strive to be more curious than ignorant.
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