Cha mẹ trông đi thì con dại, cha mẹ trông lại thì con khôn
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Children behave when parents are watching, but misbehave when they are not.
Examples
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 trông lại thì con khôn” mean?
Children behave when parents are watching, but misbehave when they are 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 trông lại thì con khôn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.