Where your family ranks

The circles don't stop at the clock-out door. Off the job you have parts to play that are older and closer than any of them — partner, parent, son, daughter, neighbor, friend. And here's the trap working people fall into: the job is loud and scheduled and pays the bills, so it eats the hours, and the people with the strongest claim on you get whatever's left. The kid gets a tired shrug. The partner gets the version of you the customers already used up.

Cicero, weighing where our duties actually rank, put close relations near the top: "country would come first, and parents... next come children and the whole family, who look to us alone for support and can have no other protection; finally, our kinsmen" (De Officiis 1.58, Miller). Notice the reason for the children: they "look to us alone." No one else is coming. The patient on your ward has a whole staff. Your own kid has you.

Doing your part means the part at home is a real part, not the leftover. The customer can find another store. The people in your house can't find another you.