Father receives parenting magazine 19 years after ordering it... and his children have now left home

By JOSHUA HAINING, NEWS REPORTER Published: 20:28, 7 June 2026 | Updated: 20:38, 7 June 2026 A father has received a parenting magazine, 19 years after he placed the order - but his children have now grown up and left home. Paul Edwards, 52, ordered a copy of Mother & Baby in 2007 when his daughter was 18 months old and his son was due to be born three months later. The magazine did not arrive for nearly two decades, until June 5, when a Royal Mail parcel was delivered which read: 'Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.' Inside was the April 2007 edition of the magazine which Mr Edwards no longer required after his children, now aged 18 and 20, fled the nest to study at university. The science-fiction author from Chester said the whole experience was 'just bizarre' and 'really tickled me'.  'Like a lot of relatively new parents, you sign up for subscriptions for things to give you advice, offers and provide things to do with the children - then obviously everyone realises you have to work it out for yourself,' he told the BBC. 'I'm not sure we realised at the time that the magazine was missing. Then it's suddenly arrived in the post. On the packaging, the Royal Mail also said it was 'very sorry' that the parcel arrived in such poor condition.  Mr Edwards continued: 'You get a half-torn screwed up bag and you think, 'what on Earth is this', with the 'sincere apologies' on it.' Paul Edwards, 52, ordered a copy of Mother & Baby in 2007 but it did not arrive until June 5 2026 Mr Edwards no longer has any need for the parenting magazine after his children aged 18 and 20 and have gone to university He said he was always checking the door in case potential publishing deals arrived, but never expected a parcel ordered so long ago to drop through the letter box.  After receiving the parcel, Mr Edwards shared photographs of the magazine and its packaging on X where the post received 1.6million views, 60,000 likes and countless comments from users discussing their own late deliveries. The parenting magazine arrived five days after Ofcom launched an investigation into Royal Mail delivery target failures on June 1. Targets set by the watchdog expected 93 per cent of First Class mail to be delivered the next working day over 12 months ending in March. But just 75.7 per cent of those letters sent by the Royal Mail arrived on time, according to a quality of service report.  Only 90.2 per cent of Second Class mail was delivered within three working days - again short of its target of 98.5 per cent. The Royal Mail is expected to complete its rollout of a new delivery model by Christmas this year. While it is making progress implementing delivery reforms, service levels have remained unacceptable, Ofcom said. A Royal Mail spokesperson said: 'Royal Mail checks all its delivery offices and clears its sorting machines daily.  'It is likely that the magazine has been put back into the postal system by someone, rather than it being lost or stuck in the network. Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address. 'Over the last year more than 92% of letters arrived on time and over 99% within seven working days.' The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.