That shame, in a moment of sobriety, that acknowledgement of not being a 'good parent' in a moment of clarity, reinforces the principle that parents in general, are caring and should be. So even failures reinforce the association of authority with caring and fairness.
I'm going to move on, taking the model of expectations of how those who possess authority should behave and that, even when they fail to meet our expectations, their attempts to hide or deny it still reinforce an ideal #musings