Miniwatsa

Let's check back in a few years to see then shall we? It seems to be your experience vs. mine, so we'll have to see. Incidentally, all parents who work and thus put their children in a day care are also being selfish by your definition. Everyone's job causes them to make some sacrifices - I try to enrich my child's life with my job, which is the most any parent can do.

How you know a 1 year old has adult friends: they know their name, they recognise them even on Facetime, they ask for them when they are not around, they run to them when they see them again, and they play and laugh around them a lot when they are together.

I've also got a real passion for rescues - so I would have to throw in a dog and 5 cats. Did the Thornberrys do that? Can any RV handle that? Can an RV even make it on some of the roads I've seen? Where would be park the RV while taking the boat up to our field site? So many questions, but worth looking into for sure:)

Great questions! We actually didn't love using DEET based products but at a field station where leishmaniasis is present, it's far preferable to use DEET than to get the disease, specially from the perspective of a child. So we would spray car seats, shoes, and clothed areas with that kind of repellent, and use a citronella based spray for exposed areas. They still got a lot of bites - everybody did. The worst, of course, were the chiggers. Those really itch (the kids didn't really itch any of the mosquito bites), so at first we were really desperate about what to do - then we did what the locals do, which is to use a sulfa-based soap (which you can't find in the US!) and it was miraculous. We just soaped them at their evening baths and pretty much nixed all the chiggers after that point!

Oh my God. I want one now.

Absolutely, they are actually quite a bit more friendly with others than a lot of kids their age. They got used to being at a field station with about 20-30 researchers around, and made friends with a lot of them. So that actually helped with their socialisation. When they begin school, I think it would depend how our field seasons are planned: I think so long as they remain primarily in the winter and summer school breaks, we won't have to disrupt school too much. But if that changes for some really good reason, they might spend some semesters out of school in the early years, with us covering their education ourselves.