If you chew with your mouth closed, don’t smack your food, floss your teeth with regularity, and practice other socially acceptable hygiene habits, you can probably thank your mother. If you know how to engage in polite or civil conversation, maintain a good work ethic, and can control your temper, you can probably attribute it to your mother. If your life has been spared more than once and your hind end hasn’t, that’s most likely a result of your mother’s prayers and her ability to weld a switch or a flip flop with more agility than a kung foo warrior.