There are so many things in this life that you, as a human being, take for granted. It seems that most of the time they occur in the process of growing up. You get so distracted with impressing your friends and having a stellar grade point average, that you forget to take a look around. In your wake, you realize that there are so many things that have been neglected. The most shocking are the thank-yous that are left unsaid to the very people who are responsible for your existence.

Parents. They are the people who saw you take your first breath in this world. The people who live to see you smile and hear your laugh. They are part of a small group of people who will ever know everything about you. You could spend your whole life thanking them, and you should. Yet, these are the things for which we can never thank them enough:

1. They always went to bat for you, even if they knew it wasn’t going to be a home run.

All good parents have an innate instinct to protect their children. As such, they have always enforced an unspoken rule in their families: messing around with one another is all fun and good, but the second one of you feels threatened, the gloves come off. God forbid another kid was picking on you or a teacher crossed the line, they suited up in their superhero gear ready to come to your defense.

2. They never failed to recognize the small stuff.

Your parents understood the message on your face without any words being exchanged. They took notice of when you were on the verge of tears and needed a hug, when you were too anxious for school and needed a mental health day, and when you were so happy that you just wanted to scream.

3. They constantly offered to help with your homework, even though they weren’t sure where to begin.

Long gone were the days when homework involved memorizing your multiplication tables and getting your reading log signed. High school brought concepts of chemistry and calculus that would consume your time. Yet, your parents didn’t even flinch. They volunteered their time then, just like they had been doing since you were finger painting.

4. Instead of twelve years a slave, they served eighteen years as our chefs, maids, and chauffeurs.

You were the definition of dependent. Your parents were your lifeline from the moment you were born to the moment you graduated. Time after time this was reiterated to you through words, but more importantly, through actions. They constantly sacrificed their time to drive you to your friends house or to practice. They made sure that you were fed even before they took their first bite. Lastly, they made sure you were always comfortable by providing you clean clothes and a space to call home.

5. They remembered your birthday and other big moments without a helpful alert from Facebook.

The walk from your room to find your parents on a special day will always hold a dear place in your heart. The day of your birthday, you were always delighted to find balloons and a special something waiting. Christmas held the promise of an extravagant family dinner and cherished times opening presents. On the day of your graduation, they shed tears watching you walk across the stage and screamed louder than everyone else because they were so overcome with pride.

6. They loved you unconditionally, even when you were a walking sack of raging hormones and they never expected anything in return.

The time between sixth and eighth grade (A.K.A., the acne filled awkward years) were some of the hardest times in your life. You have done your very best to shove those memories into a box, found in the back of your closet upon which junk piles up. Still, sometimes certain flashbacks occur and you wonder how anyone ever liked you. The worst is when your remember how terrible you were to your parents. They wanted nothing more than to be there for you, yet all you could imagine was breaking away from their embrace. Time and time again, you turned them away. Yet, like a broken record, they always came back because they loved you more than life itself.

7. They put their lives on the back burner to further yours.

Sometimes, it is hard to imagine your parents having a life outside of the family. It is almost as if they didn’t have a life before you. However, your parents ARE normal people. They had a whole different life before you came into the picture. Nevertheless, the moment that you arrived, they changed their entire lifestyle to accommodate you and they have been doing it ever since.

8. They are your best friends and on-call therapists.

There aren’t many people who can handle you at your worst. Your parents have seen you on your darkest days, and still choose to love you. They became the sunshine that chased the thunderstorms away. In every situation, they never pandered and always gave you their honest opinion. They told you when you were wrong, and applauded you when you were right. To this day, they are the first people you call for advice.

9. They worked hard to provide for you.

Your parents are the most dedicated people you know, at home and at work. For years, you have watched them slave away at their jobs. They sacrifice hours of sleep and weekends off to provide you with anything you could ever want. What amazes you most though, is how hard they work at home. They constantly taught you lesson after lesson to make you into the best person that you could be.

10. They gave you enough freedom to grow into the person that you were meant to be.

Every parent has a picture of what their kid will grow up to be. One parent imagines a professional baseball player, while another pictures a doctor. Yet, fate always had different plans. It is hard for a parent to abandon the image they conceived for their child. In their mind, that had always been the plan. Yet, their love and trust in you assuaged their uneasiness. Ultimately, they gave you the space required to be your own person. They let you test your boundaries and discover yourself, and found that the person you became, is better than the one they could have ever imagined.

Parenting is a hard job and most parents on this planet never get enough credit. Every day for the rest of your life, say thank you.