Doing fieldwork with DC

[Catabogus]

I have a couple of extended periods of overseas fieldwork coming up for which I think I’m going to have to take young DC with me. Has anyone done this successfully? Any hints or tips would be great.

Has no one done this? Oh dear. My colleagues already think I’m a bit crazy for considering it, I suspect, and my mentor told me openly that women don’t really do fieldwork after they have children. (Perhaps this is why all the senior academics in my department are men? )

Yes! I did it. Took 2 for a year (aged 4 and 18 months when it began). But much depends on who are you going with (partner? alone? etc) and where are you going (will childcare be affordable?) Worked brilliantly for us! Sounds exciting... tell us more!

Is there any way to avoid it? I avoided it, tbh. I was able to split my visits up into four short visits, spread fairly widely apart, and my parents did childcare for the time I was away. It was never longer than a week at a time.

Obviously that might be completely unpractical depending on the type of research. If you have to bring them, as Catabogus says, I think the question of whether it's feasible or not will depend on whether you can bring another adult with you. If you don't have a partner, maybe you can recruit someone to act as a kind of travelling au pair?

Thanks for the replies! I was beginning to think I was the only one with this difficulty.

My fieldwork is in developing countries in Asia, and I need to spend at least 10 weeks there this year. I have a 5 year old and a baby - so have the added complication of school terms to work around. DH is willing to come with me (he’s an academic too) at least for the 6 week school holidays. He’s also willing to stay with the 5yo if I go earlier - I can’t realistically leave the baby behind though.

tadpolefeet what kind of childcare did you use, if you don’t mind me asking? And was it successful? I tried my then 4yo with a nanny on a previous field trip and it wasn't a great hit at all...

Fact that your DH is able to come too makes a huge difference - but is he prepared to be on full childcare duty? Or does he envisage a few weeks of writing etc?!
My dh is also an academic, and we were both working full time. (I fear this might be very identifying.... but anyway...) We were also in a developing country in Asia.
We took a student (recently graduated) to help out, and she was brilliant. Lived with us as part of the family, and became a good friend. Ended up staying nearly the whole year, and - once we had other childcare set up - she did some voluntary work for a local ngo. But my4/5yo went to school (another story) and we found a local ayah for my 18month old... until she was two when she went to a local nursery in the mornings, and ayah at home in the afternoon. Dealing with childcare (when schools were closed, or when people couldn't come to work for a variety of reasons) was a constant struggle...
Hope this helps!

How old is the baby? I went away for about three weeks when DD1 was 4 and DD2 was 7 months old. DH looked after them.

I’ve never taken them with me when going to do research. It’s either been my DH on his own and/or my parents helping. I try to keep it to no more than 3 weeks.

If we’d had the money to ship us all out there (I go to the USA), I may have done so. But I find that when I’m researching I want to put my head down and work flat out.

Oooh, tadpolefeet, that sounds promising! Would you mind telling me a bit more about how it worked with the student please? Was this an undergraduate? How did you recruit her to do this? Did it add a huge extra expense to fieldwork if you had to pay all her expenses as well as a wage?

Using a student is not something I had considered at all but would definitely think about it if it is do-able.

burntthetoast that's interesting. Baby will be somewhere between 8 months and 1 year when we go. I’m BFing and I can’t imagine how I could leave her... even for 3 weeks! How did it work out for you?

Hi Catabogus,
Happy to talk about it... and wonder if doing it over email (as a real person) might be better?!
Anyway, re the student - we were starting over the summer and advertised around the Uni. We got mainly UG finalists applying, as we were leaving in the summer, so it fitted in well with the academic year. We stressed that we were looking for someone to help with childcare, with perhaps some research assistance work but said that we were hoping to offer a really interesting experience as well. We paid for all her costs and paid her some pocket money. But where we were there was nothing to spend it on, and she obviously wasn't in it for the money. We also paid for everything while we were there (including holidays), and a flight out of the country when she had to leave (and return) for visa reasons. I think about 10 or 12 people applied, we interviewed most or all of them, then 2 came home and met our children (as a kind of second interview). We were thinking more about which one would be good for the children, and so went for the one who had experience with children and was obviously interested in them. (The other one might have made a better research assistant, but that wasn't our main concern). It was a risk, as we were living together 24/7 in very close proximity to each other, but it worked very well, and she became a very good friend. It meant we had an extra pair of hands, and an extra someone to play games with them etc. I didn't expect her to 100% look after the children, though, as we wanted to make it sufficiently interesting for her that she would stay fairly long term. So we got her set up with other voluntary work outside the house fairly soon. (But if you are there shorter term this might not apply....) So, yes, it did add an extra expense, but it meant we could both work full time, which probably wouldn't have been possible without her.
Hope this helps, and do ask if you have any more questions!