A boundary isn’t a wall to keep someone out. It’s instructions for how to stay in.

A limit is an attempt to keep somebody rather than remove them. When you say what you cannot do, or what you need to stop, you are describing the conditions under which you can keep being in the room. Without that information people guess, overstep, and get met with silence or an exit. Said plainly, it is closer to a map than a barrier.

Phrase yours as what you can offer rather than what is forbidden. I can talk for an hour but not all night, or help on Saturday but not Sunday. And when somebody gives you one, take it as them trying to stay, not as a rejection.