Welcome!

Stories about people in the field shape the narrative of who a field researcher, teacher, caretaker, and leader can be. Our goal is to show that parents can be successful in field based roles, and that there are many different successful solutions to fieldwork while parenting.  This will help provide some good advice and examples for people wanting to do the same, and also be a proof-of-concept for those concerned that it can not be done.  With that being said, as with both research and parenting on their own, things don't always go smoothly.  We also warmly welcome stories about adventures that didn't completely work out as planned.  There is value in the null results!

We want to share all of the different solutions parents have figured out to doing fieldwork when they have children, and there are a lot of different situations and solutions.  So your experience is important. These stories can be about fieldwork ranging from adventures in other countries to local day-trips.  They can be in the wilderness, at field stations, or in the wildland/urban interface (or anywhere in between).  We are not limited by discipline.  The fieldwork can be for surveys, research, professional photography, or teaching (and everything in between). The children could just be along for the trip and watched by another caregiver during the actual work, they could be side-by-side with the parent, or any combination.  Children could be infants to teenagers.   The story could be recent, or decades ago.  If you were the kid brought along in the field, we would love your perspective too.  Stories about managing pumping and traveling welcome as well.  The story could be a paragraph or multiple pages, photos or no photos, all up to you.

If you want to submit a paragraph now, and turn it into a few pages later, we will happily update it later.  We know you are busy!  If you aren't sure if your story "counts", email me and we will figure it out together.

If you have a story you are willing to share, please send me a message - FieldworkWhileParenting@gmail.com.  We can post with credit or anonymously, whichever you prefer.  We also will happily post a link to your blog post, if you have already shared a story of this elsewhere.