My Life: I brought my baby on tour with the family circus

Candice Taylor, performer in Duffy’s Circus, discusses returning to the road post-partum, and how the very young take to the touring lifestyle

Candice Taylor from Tom Duffy's Circus who took her baby daughter Charlotte (pictured) on tour with the circus.

At eight and a half months old, my daughter, Charlotte, had already visited 11 different countries.

But travelling the world is just one of the perks of being a baby on tour with the circus. Now, as my partner Tom and I prepare to celebrate our little girl’s first birthday, we feel so grateful for the way in which she has enriched both our lives.

It’s still very new to us, but while circus performing undoubtedly brings its own unique challenges, in many ways, we are like any other couple trying to navigate the bumpy terrain of parenthood.

Charlotte was just five weeks old when Tom and I resumed our crossbow act in front of a live audience. To outsiders, this might seem like very early to return to work. 

However, for a circus mum, I was lucky. The timing was ideal, because I gave birth just a week after the season closed.

Many performers have babies while their colleagues are on tour. They might give birth in one place only to find that the circus has moved on to a new location the following week.

Meanwhile, the mum is still in hospital because you just never know how long your stay is going to be. That’s the nature of the beast, I suppose, because the show must go on. I was lucky to have enjoyed so much support.

Tom is a great dad to Charlotte, and we have a lot of help. My mum came over from her home in Wales to help out after I had Charlotte, and my younger sister came for a while as well. Tom’s family also look after Charlotte a lot.

There isn’t a member of the cast and crew at Duffy’s Circus who does not adore Charlotte. Moreover, she has such a rich and varied exposure that a baby would not experience in a creche.

You’ll have one girl performing lullabies to her in French and another singing to her in Brazilian. In between, there will be somebody regaling Charlotte with stories in Spanish.

My mum often takes her to see the show. Charlotte is not so much absorbing the sights and sounds from the ring as she is delighting in the audience reactions.

There’s this really visceral response when she hears the crowd’s collective gasps. Her eyes visibly widen when she hears the screams, whether they are out of fear or excitement.

She is also known to clap or dance along to the music. I don’t think she’s made the connection that this is her mum and dad on stage yet. Even when I prompt her and point out “look, there’s daddy”, she is nonplussed.

Our living arrangements while on the road are very organised. We have a string of American trailers, similar to the ones you see in Hollywood, which the cast and crew call home while touring.

Ours is a two-bedroom, complete with a kitchen sofa, utility room, to name but a few necessities. Our three dogs Lola, Lucky, and Eliza are always in tow.

Everything we own comes in pairs. For almost every belonging we have at home, there is a matching one in our trailer. We have two cots, two highchairs, basically two of everything Charlotte needs.

Typically, we’ll stay somewhere for seven days. By the time Sunday evening arrives, Charlotte is falling asleep. She has a little nap in the car. Before we know it, we are all back home and in bed, so the travel itself is not a monumental struggle.

From an outsider’s perspective, it might come across like our life is very unstructured, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

I didn’t grow up with the circus. As somebody who had to move around a lot as a child due to my family situation, I see the circus as a very stable environment. Of course, you move, but everything moves with you.

There is a routine and a set season every year so you know what to expect.

Only time will tell if circus will be a path Charlotte wishes to pursue when she’s older, but we will support her in whatever she wants to do in life. It’s funny because I’m looking at life through the eyes of a mum now, so of course my perspective is quite different.

I can still recall my mum being crippled with worry about some of the acts I performed starting out. At the time, I shrugged it off and told her not to be silly. 

I now realise that, as a mum, there are certain acts I wouldn’t like Charlotte trying when she’s older.

I see what Tom’s mum goes through every day when she watches him and his brother Jamie do the wheel of death.

It’s difficult for me to think about these things, but I also experience your usual concerns facing mothers the world over. The mum guilt is inescapable. 

I often wonder if I work too much or if I’m too distracted. Then I remember to check my privilege and remind myself that not every mother gets to go back to work with their baby. 

I feel even luckier that Charlotte comes from a long line of phenomenal and multi-talented people and that she can take pride in telling people she is an eighth-generation Duffy.