The Best Time of the Day

As their children grew older, Jake Frost and his wife recalibrated the schedule to find a new way to foster family time.

The time I look forward to each day is Snack Time, just before bed.

By then, all the homework’s done, the last load of laundry’s in, and the backpacks are lined up by the door ready for the hustle and bustle to kick off again tomorrow morning.

It starts early ... and goes all day. We’ve got one in high school now, so there are now two different schools with two different start times and schedules to contend with. Kids in both schools have clubs and student councils that meet before school. So we aren’t even all together in the mornings anymore. Some kids are up and gone before others are even awake.

And after school, running late into the evening, are more clubs and sports and lessons. Dinner conflicts abound. It’s more often than not that one or two or three are missing from the supper table.

To get everyone together for at least a little time each day, we searched the schedule for gathering opportunities, and realized that no matter what the sports season is, everyone still sleeps here! Which means that at least at night before bed everyone is home!

Thus was Snack Time born.

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With a big bowl of popcorn, we all sit around the table at the end of the day and relax and talk and crack jokes.

The jokes are corny, to be sure.

But there’s lots of laughter and lots of sharing. It’s at Snack Time that I get most of my news about school and hear about the books they’re reading and figure out what’s been on their minds by the questions they ask.

Snack Time has been a great way to keep us connected as a family.

And it’s a lot of fun!

Even without the popcorn. I ran out the other night and one of my younger kids said: “That’s alright, Dad, we don’t need popcorn. We can just sit around the table and talk.”

I think we all look forward to that time together!