The Hovlands gave up on family dinners years ago.
Nobody can remember why.
Perhaps it was when their twin girls, Ashley and Rebecca, started to insist on eating what they wanted when they wanted. Perhaps it was when the father, David, started coming home later from his job. Perhaps it was when the mother, Ruth, went back to work as a nurse and came home tired. Whatever the reasons, the Hovlands don't do dinner as a family anymore. The family has enough income to keep major economic worries at bay, and they have good friends and good-enough relations with their extended families.