Community Helpers: Mail in the UK

Moving to (or perhaps visiting) a new country means you see new ways of doing things. Luckily, our kids still get impressed with simple things in life like learning new names for food or about mail in the UK. For example, we identified post boxes (i.e., for those in the US think the blue mail dropbox), and most importantly, figured out what the mailman looks like. Bonus! We also observed the tools and vehicles they use. While not quite unique to the UK, the kids also love having a key to open the mailbox at our short-term rental. SUCH a novelty for them.

Our kids wanted to share one of their favorite community helpers with you. Bet you can’t guess what it is. Rats, you got it on the first guess. It’s the mailman! Mail in the UK is very similar to mail back at home in the United States. Looking at the pictures, what things are the same and what things are different? How amazing that every country can have a different way of doing things AND we can all still send and receive mail to each other no matter where we live!

We still have room to grow before the little ones can fully put some mail in the post box on their own. The slot is a bit too high up still. It’s also very exciting when we can “I Spy” the pushcarts that you can see in the image below.

Fun Facts About Mail in the UK

You can buy first-class or second-class stamps. The second class might mean slower delivery but cheaper postage.
Royal Mail was formed in 1516!
The UK government ended up privatizing Royal Mail and began the transition in 2013.
The Post Office and Royal Mail are two different companies.
- The government controls the Post Office. The post office helps with services like buying postage, allowing people to drop off mail or parcels at a physical location, or helping with other services like passports.
- When the government decided to privatize Royal Mail, they split this into a different group from the post office. The role of Royal Mail is to serve as a courier and deliver the letters and parcels.