(not so) great expectations

It's a strange human phenomenon. We often overlook, or take for granted, the people that we are closest to. I've heard different explanations for this but, in my mind, reasoning it away doesn't make it any better or make it ok. It's also pretty common, fair or not, that our expectations of people closest to us are a lot higher than the expectations we have for other friends or common acquaintances. Shouldn't the exact opposite be true? Shouldn't we be showing extra kindness, patience and a bit more understanding to those closest to us?

We really can't change other people, no matter how much we may want to mold them into someone we think they should be or to change their behaviors. We can, however, change how we think about them, how we look at them and their actions. We can change our own behavior and pay better attention to how we treat our loved ones. At some point they will no longer be in our lives and what a shame it will be when they're gone and we are left with regrets about events we missed, about things we wish we'd done differently or about words left unsaid.