Charlotte Hindle: a career break with children

Charlotte Hindle is the author of 'The Career Break Book' published by the Lonely Planet. She took a career break at the age of 39, when her daughter Daisy was just 22 months old.

One of the most difficult decisions of my life was to quit my job as General Manager of Lonely Planet UK – the office I had set up and run since 1991. After my career break I became a freelance travel writer, photographer and mum (that bit’s not freelance). I think I had the best job in the world and I would never have wanted a career change for anything but my family. In the end I decided I wanted a job that would fit around my children rather than trying to fit my children around my job.

We took a succession of trips to the Outer Hebrides, Sweden, Wales, Slovenia, Austria and Greece. Prior to my career break, Daisy had been in nursery four days a week. It was an excellent nursery but on our break, with one-to-one or two-to-one attention, she learned so much so quickly. I was also surprised at how quickly I relaxed and unwound – it was such a relief not getting up in the morning to over 200 emails.

There were lots of best bits – watching seals and singing Ba Ba Black Sheep in the car while passing herds of sheep in the Outer Hebrides, cycling on safe cycle paths in Sweden, watching two boys surf in the swollen river at Graz, finding out I was pregnant just before catching a plane to Greece.

I learnt thousands of things about travelling with children, a hundred things about the places we visited; but the most important lesson of all was how vital it is to spend time with your child or children when they are young.

My top tip for other career breakers with children is: never try to do too much in a day - if you’re used to seeing five sites in 24 hours, cut this down to two and don’t forget to ask the locals where to find the children’s playgrounds (they are not marked in most travel guidebooks).

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