Why I’d NEVER Raise Black Children In London

A Black British woman leaves London with two suitcases, no job, nowhere to live — and builds an entirely new life in Dubai. What started as a one-year plan turned into nine years abroad, multiple careers, identity shifts, burnout, reinvention, and one brutally honest realization: “I’d NEVER raise Black children in London.” Kai Charles grew up in West London, worked corporate jobs at companies like The Economist, and dreamed of building a music career. But despite doing everything “right” — good grades, university, stable career — something still felt deeply wrong. So she left. In this raw, controversial, and deeply honest conversation, Kai opens up about the realities of leaving the UK, the emotional cost of migration, Black British identity, why Dubai felt safer than London, and the uncomfortable truths many people are too scared to say out loud. From surviving Dubai with no plan, no apartment, and only £4,000 in savings… to navigating the music industry, COVID lockdowns, corporate burnout, loneliness abroad, and the question of whether “home” still feels like home — this episode goes there. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 What we cover: Leaving London with no job and no apartment Why corporate life felt “soul destroying” Working at The Economist before quitting everything Trying to survive as an independent singer in Dubai The hidden reality of gig culture and artist burnout Why Dubai felt safer than the UK The culture shock of raising children in Dubai “I’d NEVER raise Black children in London” The difference between Black British and Caribbean identity Why so many ambitious people are quietly leaving the UK COVID in Dubai vs London: why she chose to stay The loneliness nobody talks about when moving abroad Why London now feels “slow, unsafe and depressing” Soft life culture vs survival mode Why Dubai changed her forever The emotional reality of starting over abroad Building community as a Black woman overseas Why she no longer sees the UK the same way ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ REAL TALK: This episode will probably trigger people. Some will completely understand everything Kai is saying. Others will strongly disagree. But whether you agree or not, this conversation opens up real questions about identity, safety, ambition, burnout, race, migration, and what people are silently searching for when they leave home. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Would YOU ever leave your country and start over? Do you think London is still a good place to raise children? Has living abroad changed the way you see “home”? Drop your thoughts below 👇 We read every single one. 🔁 Share this with someone secretly thinking about leaving the UK. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 About the show — "Babes, How Did You Get Here?" Hosted by entrepreneur & former Miss Jamaica April Jackson, this podcast explores the raw, emotional, and often uncomfortable stories behind people who chose a life elsewhere. New episodes every week from around the world. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:25 Leaving London With Two Suitcases 00:04:49 Corporate Burnout & Music Dreams 00:06:16 “I Got Sick Of Being Sick In London” 00:07:38 Moving To Dubai With No Plan 00:10:57 Finding An Apartment In 5 Days 00:14:14 Why Dubai Felt Different 00:17:07 How The Dubai Music Industry Really Works 00:20:14 Sacrificing Artistry To Survive 00:21:51 Why She Quit Singing 00:23:19 COVID Destroyed The Industry 00:26:17 Why She Stayed In Dubai During Lockdown 00:28:04 Returning To London After Living Abroad 00:29:59 How Dubai Changed Her Personality 00:31:03 The Moment She Realized She’d Never Move Back 00:33:02 Why Corporate Life Never Fulfilled Her 00:39:09 Searching For Purpose Beyond Money 00:40:01 Family Reactions To Her Leaving 00:41:20 Why So Many People Are Moving To Dubai 00:43:17 Parenting, Culture Shock & Children In Dubai 00:47:47 “I’d NEVER Raise Black Children In London” 00:50:02 Why The West No Longer Feels Appealing 00:51:11 Black British Identity Explained ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Dubai #London #BlackBritish #ExpatLife #LeavingTheUK #DubaiLife #BlackWomen #MovingAbroad #SoftLife #LondonLife #BlackExcellence #Diaspora #Podcast #AprilJackson #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #UKvsDubai #LifeAbroad #BritishCulture #EntrepreneurLife #WomenWhoMove #DubaiPodcast #BlackDiaspora #Identity #SelfDevelopment #BlackProfessionals #ModernMigration