You don’t care what your parents (or anyone else) thinks (a fairly common feeling among Autism Spectrum folx)
You are focused on one or two important things (goal: get a promotion / get an A in this class / etc.), and nebulous “make my parents proud” things aren’t as important.
You interpret the question as referring to both or all your parents, but one or more of the previously mentioned reasons apply to some of your parents, so while you might want to make “my mom” proud, that doesn’t apply to “my dad” or “my stepmom” and therefore you don’t consider “my parents” a unified entity.
You could also say “no” if:
You don’t have “goals in life”
Your parents are dead
You don’t care what your parents (or anyone else) thinks (a fairly common feeling among Autism Spectrum folx)
You are focused on one or two important things (goal: get a promotion / get an A in this class / etc.), and nebulous “make my parents proud” things aren’t as important.
You interpret the question as referring to both or all your parents, but one or more of the previously mentioned reasons apply to some of your parents, so while you might want to make “my mom” proud, that doesn’t apply to “my dad” or “my stepmom” and therefore you don’t consider “my parents” a unified entity.