A bad day at school isn’t your little brother’s fault. Don’t make home pay for what happened out there.

Anger is portable, and the people who get it are usually the ones least involved. Something goes wrong out in the world where you cannot answer back, and the pressure comes home to whoever is safe and nearby. That safety is exactly why they receive it, which is a strange sort of compliment and still unfair to them.

When you walk in carrying something, say so in one sentence before anyone asks you a question. Take twenty minutes alone if that is what you need. If it has already landed on someone, go back and tell them plainly that it was not about them.