Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Cha mẹ trông đi thì con dại, cha mẹ ngó lại thì con khôn

🎙 Say it

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Children behave when being watched by parents but misbehave when not

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Trẻ em hành động tốt khi được phụ huynh giám sát

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: Father mother look away then child foolish, father mother look back then child wise

Examples

Khi ở lớp học, các bạn học sinh thường nói 'Cha mẹ trông đi thì con dại, cha mẹ ngó lại thì con khôn'In class, students often say 'Cha mẹ trông đi thì con dại, cha mẹ ngó lại thì con khôn'

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-05; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Cha mẹ trông đi thì con dại, cha mẹ ngó lại thì con khôn” mean?

Children behave when being watched by parents but misbehave when not Literally: Father mother look away then child foolish, father mother look back then child wise

Is “Cha mẹ trông đi thì con dại, cha mẹ ngó lại thì con khôn” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time