Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.

O’Connor links private life to public character: the daily obligations of caring for others—children, spouses, aging parents—force a person to practice patience, compromise, and empathy. The quote suggests that responsibility is not merely a burden but a moral education, widening one’s perspective beyond individual ambition. Coming from a jurist often associated with pragmatism and attention to real-world consequences, the remark also implies that decision-makers benefit from lived experience of ordinary pressures. More broadly, it argues against a sharp divide between professional excellence and family life, proposing that family commitments can deepen judgment and humane understanding rather than diminish competence.