Aniroodh Sivaraman, 

It could be regarded in either way but keeping it within the household family situation. When there is a father in a family, his opinions are given priority. The son is considered to be secondary and people assume that the son will support the father, no matter what. Or at least that the son when he is in opposition to the father, will keep his views to himself and not publish that to offend or in this case to incriminate the senior man.

I had experiences when I functioned as a father head of family, where one of the children opposed me either directly or indirectly, covertly or in the open. It is an interesting experience.

Conversely as a child, there were occasions when I was in opposition to my grandparent or parent. That is also an interesting situation to be in.

These incidences can do wonder for a yogi, to encourage one to accelerate advancement.

In the story about Govardhan Hill, I read that Krishna opposed Nanda Gopa, Krishna’s foster father. The father was traditional conservative and Krishna was more liberal where when the father wanted to worship Indra the lord of rainfall, Krishna more or less, said that Indra was useless.

So even with the deities, there is this back and forth between seniors and juniors.