Don't forget the snacks: doing field research as a parent

This chapter reflects on the experiences – challenges, opportunities, considerations, consequences – of conducting field research as a parent. Through a series of reflections on and from field research, we locate our individual experiences as part of a broader conversation about conducting academic field research while a parent – and various decisions that need to be made, compromises reached, barriers faced, and benefits realised. As the experiences recounted here demonstrate, there is no single way of approaching field research as a parent, and each circumstance requires specific decisions to be made and options to be assessed. Crucially, there remains a need for funders and institutions to better recognise and accommodate the diverse and shifting needs of parents (and other carers) in a career that often demands field research as a core component.