This story, about parents who believe that discipline doesn’t work, reminds me of the Simpsons episode about the young Ned Flanders and his (speaking of the sixties) hippie/beatnik parents:

Dr. Foster: Would you please tell your son to stop?

Ned’s Dad: We can’t do it, man! That’s discipline! That’s like tellin’ Gene Krupa not to go [starts banging on the desk] “boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom boom bam ba ba ba ba, da boo boo tss!”

Ned’s Dad: We don’t believe in rules, like, we gave them up when we started livin’ like freaky beatniks!

Dr. Foster: You don’t believe in rules, yet you want to control Ned’s anger.

Ned’s Mom: Yeah. You gotta help us, Doc. We’ve tried nothin’ and we’re all out of ideas.