You will make friends all throughout your life. You will also find, in life, that few size up to the level of companionship offered to you by your parents. Your parents have been with you from the beginning and you can trust them like no other friend. I have been thinking a lot about this lately, and it has only been made clearer to me as I continue my transition out of my childhood home and away from my parent’s care. I have found that, as I hit more milestones that my parents hit ages ago, it becomes more apparent to me that they will be my best friends for life. Here are eight reasons why:

1. They will always forgive you.

No matter how bad of a person you are, your parents always seem to forgive you, and you always seem to forgive them. There is a mutually established, yet unspoken rule, that neither of you will take advantage of this, and that is precisely why the relationship works so well.

2. They think everything you say and do is interesting.

This is a big one. In a world of too much noise and a seemingly infinite amount of people interested solely in their own lives, it is sometimes hard to find someone to listen to your problems, or hear about your interests. Your parents will always be receptive to what you have to contribute.

3. They think you’re the smartest and funniest person ever and love you even if you’re not.

It really doesn’t matter whether or not you’re dumb as a bucket of mud, your parents will remind you that you are smart and hilarious. They will be the ones to say this, regardless of how much you disagree, and regardless of how untrue it might be.

4. They have been there through it all.

Your parents play an important role in humbling you. It is their job to keep you in check, reminding you that they wiped your butt when you couldn’t and cleaned up your vomit only to be thrown up on again. You will never be too cool for Mom and Dad.

5. They will side with you.

When it comes to jumping to your defense, your parents will almost always be the ones there when the claws come out. Whether it’s a fight with a friend, a boyfriend, a teacher, a boss, or sometimes even a sibling, they will side with you nearly time.

6. When they embarrass you, it’s almost never on purpose.

Your regular friends will sometimes post horrendous photos of you online, or yell something obscene at the person you have a thing for, or tell horrifying stories of that time you accidentally sent an embarrassing Snapchat to the hot guy in your math class. When your parents things like this they always mean well. They will caption embarrassing, buck-toothed photos on Facebook with “my beautiful daughter." When they tell stories about you playing naked in your front yard as a kid, you know it’s just because they look fondly upon a time when you were that young. You let them tell people these things and share these memories of you because you know it is out of love.

7. They will always encourage you to do things outside of your comfort zone, because they will always believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

Parents will encourage you to do things like applying for an internship you know you have no chance of getting, or going on a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip even though you’re nervous about the long plane ride and the language barriers. They do this because they see you doing things in your future that you would never do without them, simply because you judge yourself too harshly, thus limiting your own abilities. Friends often will agree with any limitations you place on yourself, for the sake of appearing like they’re siding with you.

8. They will truly love you unconditionally.

You can always count on your parents to forgive you before you forgive them, to remark on your beauty even as you emerge from your bedroom at seven in the morning, looking like you’ve been stranded at sea for six months. Most parents will love you even if you get an F on a paper or forget to take out the trash.