Hey friends—my name is Jennah. I’m a mom of five. Yes, five.
Which means I’ve spent the better part of two decades negotiating bedtimes, hunting down missing stuffed animals, answering questions that absolutely could have waited until morning, and making up stories when I probably should have been sleeping myself.
And somewhere along the way, I ended up with quite the collection of characters swirling around in my brain… a few actually made their way into a published book or two. Some of my kids loved those stories. And a few couldn’t wait for the story to end so they could get on with the very important business of not going to sleep.
But at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter to me either way because it was never actually about the stories.
Five Kids. Five Very Different Bedtimes.
If there’s one thing raising five kids has taught me, it’s that what works for one child almost certainly won’t work for the next.
One wants to talk. One wants to listen. One has 900 questions and a fart joke queued up. One just wants you to sit there and tickle their back. For me, it felt like the only thing I could count on night in and night out was that I was the most tired one in the room.
Some nights, bedtime was the best five minutes of my day.
Other nights? Easily the worst.
There were nights I wanted to freeze time and nights I couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. And I’m not going to pretend like I appreciated every single moment, because I didn’t. I was tired. I was distracted. I had dishes in the sink, emails to answer, and at least one load of laundry I’d already washed twice because I forgot to move it to the dryer.
But somewhere between the stories, the conversations, the ridiculous questions, and the occasional bedtime standoff, we found something that worked. Not perfectly. Not every night. But it worked enough of the time that we found a way to stay connected.
And the really wonderful part is that those little connections didn’t disappear when my kids got older. The stories changed… the conversations got bigger… the questions got harder. Eventually, for my teenagers, bedtime stopped being something I had much say in at all.
But that habit of finding even just five minutes for each other? Somehow, that stuck in various shapes for each of my kids, and I am so grateful for that.
So… Why Bedtime Mailbox Club?
This whole thing happened because I think those five minutes are worth making room for, and because I know how hard it can be to prioritize those minutes when you’re in the messy middle of raising kids.
Bedtime Mailbox Club started with the stories I made up for my own family over the past two decades, along with a few new characters and adventures I’ve been dreaming up.
The vision is that every month, we send a little bit of that imagination straight to your mailbox. Kids of all ages LOVE getting something in the mail, and it is so nice as a parent to take a break from the same stale stories you’ve read hundreds of times because your kids won’t let you put them down.
Each mailing comes with stories to read together, silly things to find, questions to ask, activities to try, and characters who—with any luck—will become part of your family’s inside jokes and evening rituals, too.
It’s not homework.
It’s not another thing you need to organize, prep, or add to the calendar.
And it’s definitely not a promise that your child will suddenly go to bed without asking for water seventeen times.
It’s just a simple way to spend five minutes together… turning once upon a time into the best time of your day.
The Plot Twist I Didn’t See Coming.
My kids are growing up. I am equal parts totally excited and totally unwell about it, honestly.
Some are already at the age where they’re driving, making their own plans, and needing me in ways that look a whole lot different than they did when they were little. And while I love watching them become their own people, there’s something strange about realizing that the little bedtime routines you thought would last forever eventually just… stop.
Nobody tells you which night will be the last time they ask for a story.
Or the last time they’ll want you to sit on the edge of their bed for five more minutes.
You don’t know it’s the last time until it’s already happened.
And while I don’t wish I could go back to every bedtime (man, some of those nights were ROUGH), I would absolutely take a few more of the good ones.
Looking back, I don’t think the stories themselves were the most important thing we created… it was the space to laugh together. To be silly. To talk about things that mattered and things that didn’t. Somehow, even as my kids have gotten older, we’ve managed to hold on to a little bit of that magic.
That’s what I hope Bedtime Mailbox Club gives your family.
Not perfect bedtimes. Not another parenting obligation. Just a few magical minutes that belong to you and your kids, whatever those minutes happen to look like. Because after five kids, hundreds of made-up stories, and more bedtime negotiations than I care to admit, there’s one thing I’m pretty sure of:
Five Minutes Matter.
And if we do it right, they continue to matter long after evening bedtime routines are a thing of the past.
With love,
Jennah
Mom of Five, Professional Bedtime Negotiator & Founder of Bedtime Mailbox Club