Affirmation to Kindness I always treat my family with kindness and love.

I always treat my family with kindness and love.


You would never use that tone with a colleague. You would apologise, or soften it, or find some way of saying the same thing that left everyone's dignity in place.

Home gets a worse version of you because home does not leave. Colleagues are handled carefully precisely because the relationship is fragile. Family absorbs, so family gets the unedited draft.

There is something almost like a compliment buried in that, and it is very little comfort to whoever is on the receiving end at half past seven on a Thursday. The courtesy you spend on strangers all day is not a fixed supply. Some of it can be carried home.