I Doubt that I'm Alone in This

So I was talking to my good friend Natalie yesterday and we started in talking about how our parents put so much pressure on us to succeed and majority of the time it was tedious and annoying but that we knew they only did it because they loved us and wanted to give us every opportunity they knew how. It got me to thinking back to when I was young and my mom made me erase and rewrite homework neatly, answer questions in complete sentences, and do outlines and notecards for almost every paper. However, the older I get the more I realize that (1) those skills are still beneficial to me as a junior in college and (2) that majority of my peers still don't have them. It must have been the worst for my mom to sit there and try to convince my eight, nine, and twelve year old self of this fact. I'm so glad that she cared enough to deal with my attitudes and all that other nonsense to make me do things the correct way and not let me fall through the cracks. Majority of the brilliant writing, or any creative thing I've done on this blog or anywhere else is probably with her help. Just wanted to say thanks!

That's mi madre. Ain't she pretty?

I say all that to say I know I cannot be the only one that had a mother like this. What have your mothers, biological or other wise done to help get to where you are today? How do you say thank you?