The person sharing a difficult experience may want understanding rather than a debate about every possible exception.

When someone describes something hard, the impulse to correct the general claim can be strong. They say a thing about doctors, or about families, and part of you wants to note that it is not always like that. The correction may even be accurate. It also answers a sentence that was never the point, and it tells the person their experience is now a topic to be argued.

Listen for what is actually being said underneath the words, which is usually that something was hard and lonely. Respond to that. The exceptions can wait for another day, or forever.