The thing is, I kind of doubt this was an isolated incident. LW's son may have made a decision after two decades of listening to his parents deride people who didn't make a lot of money as "losers", and may have spent years knowing he could never tell his parents about any small daily setback or stressor without their saying "we told you so! Teaching is for suckers! Give up now!"

I mean, I could be wrong in all of this, but from what I've seen of people, there tend to be ongoing patterns rather than one big out of character incident.