Have Child, Will Travel

Bringing my kid on my around-the-world adventures helped me see her in new and unexpected ways

- Diane Selkirk

THE FIRST TIME MY DAUGHTER, Maia, realized I was leaving on a trip without her, she was alarmed. She was three, and as a new travel writer, I was excited about a solo visit to South Carolina. Seeing photos of where I was going, she didn't hold back her toddler despair. "Why did you even have me if you were just going to leave me behind?" she sobbed.

I tried to tell her that someday she'd understand the lure of travel. But as my husband, Evan, pried her off my leg so I could leave, I wondered if my solo trips would be worth the effort of going without her.

Returning home after a few days away, I felt energized and inspired. The mini jars of hotel jam I brought back were a hit, and Maia was happy to hear about my trip. But this was the age of learning about compromises. As in: "You have to wear a coat, but we'll compromise and you can choose which one." She told me I could keep going on trips for work-but we'd compromise: She'd come with me.

Travelling is something Evan and I hoped Maia would love. She was born on our sailboat, six years into a slow adventure through 12 countries, Mexico, Panama and Guatemala among them. Wanting her to know her grandparents, we headed back home to Vancouver when she was 14 months old.

OUR GOAL WAS TO SET OUT sailing again when she was seven, an age when she'd be able to remember the voyage, as well as be independent enough for us all to enjoy extended family travel. Until then, the plan was for me to travel on my own and build a writing career while we took Maia on short family trips.

But then, a year after that pivotal trip to South Carolina, an invitation came to experience the Rocky Mountaineer on a parent-child journey through the Rockies. And as terrifying as it seemed to take a preschooler on a luxury train, the trip sounded too good to pass up.