Minority language in public

I thought there was a thread on this already but maybe I'm confusing it with Adam's post over at Bilingual Monkeys. At any rate I couldn't find it.

I wanted to share a few thoughts on my experience of using the ml in public with my daughter, ending with something odd that happened a few days ago - though maybe it's just me overinterpreting it.

Here goes:

When I'm in ml country (Germany), it feels weird using ml in public because suddenly everyone can understand what I tell my daughter. I have to remind myself that for monolingual families, this is what it's like every day, while in the ML country, I can get away with telling my daughter dumb things (like saying the panda eats eucalyptus, when it's really the koala, the other day at the zoo) or her crying "Let me down!" in that memorable episode I shared in Adam's Little Monsters contest at Halloween.

Last weekend we were not only at the zoo but also in a Bed and Breakfast, and during breakfast, another guest asked me if I was from Germany (yes) and if I spoke only German with my daughter (yes) and if she only answered me in German (yes) and if she was fully bilingual (pretty much, but I simplified with "yes"). You'll probably be familiar with that list of questions.
And of course she concluded with "Young children are like sponges." I nodded politely and smiled.

These days I'm rarely in a situation where ML playmates are present, but the other day when I picked up my daughter from preschool, we happened to go the same way as her best (or second-best?) friend with her mom, and as we passed the local park, there were lots of Christmas trees piled up. My daughter asked in ML (sort of directed at her friend) why the trees were in the park in the middle of the lawn and I replied automatically in ml that it was a designated collection site and the city workers would pick them up and transform them into compost. In reply, my daughter explained, still in ML: "I don't understand anything at all!"

I shrugged it off, but a couple days later I'm wondering if she really didn't understand anything (but that wouldn't have been her usual reaction) or if she'd said that to get me to explain in ML so her friend would understand.