The Parent

The Parent - meaning Summary

Parental Role as Foil

Nash compresses a comic insight into two lines: children require a foil and parents fill that role. The poem suggests, with light irony, that parental authority exists less to instruct than to be resisted; parental presence gives children something to ignore, a necessary part of development and identity formation. In this epigram the family dynamic is treated as an ordinary, reciprocal function rather than a moral failing.