Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at JCU chapter.

All moms have certain habits that they enforced while you were growing up that you didn’t necessarily understand. Maybe those habits were annoying at the time or it seemed like none of your friends had to do the same thing. In the end, though, these habits have made you a better person. So here are the 5 habits that I’d like to thank my mom for instilling in me:

1. Writing thank you notes

Growing up, my mom always made sure that I wrote a thank you note for anything and everything. This was always somewhat annoying because I didn’t realize the importance at the time, especially when I had to hand write 150 thank you notes for everyone who attended my graduation party. Now that I’m in my third year of college, the thank you note writing habit definitely hasn’t gone away. It comes in handy for everything from interviews to when someone’s mom donated baked goods for your sorority’s bake sale.

2. Picking out my outfit the night before

None of my friends picked their outfits out the night before when we were growing up, so I always thought this was a weird habit that my mom enforced. Eventually, picking out my outfit the night before carried over into also making sure that my backpack is packed ahead of time. Thanks to my mom making me get organized the night before, I now realize that the best way to ensure that my morning goes smoothly is to pick out an outfit and pack my backpack with everything I need for the day.

 

3. Keeping a planner

This isn’t something that my mom necessarily made me do, but I learned the importance of keeping a planner by watching her do so while I was growing up. Fast forward to my college years and this is such a great habit to have because keeping track of meetings, activities, appointments, and assignments would be impossible without a planner.

4. Don’t pay full price for anything

This is also a habit that I learned by watching my mom during our many shopping trips that we’ve been on together. My mom knew the best ways to shop sales and she seemed to always have a coupon. Because of this habit I now know how to shop smart and save money. Not to mention, #brokecollegestudent

5. Always eat breakfast

Mornings were always rough growing up because I’m definitely not a morning person. But despite the fact that I always managed to sleep as late as possible before finally getting up, my mom made sure that I ate breakfast every single day. A lot of times this meant that she actually made my breakfast for me, even in high school when I was supposed to be more independent. Now that I’m in college, I start every day with breakfast because it’s definitely the most important meal of the day.