This proverb highlights the significance of parents’ advice. It compares their advice to a bull’s kick, which can be painful if it hits its target but will alert you otherwise. In other words, regardless of whether you follow their advice, it makes a significant impact: either it hurts by grounding you in reality, or it alerts you to the path you should take. An equivalent English proverb might be ‘A father’s advice is a light to his son’. It originates mainly from the Merina people, an ethnic group in the highlands of Madagascar.