Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys was the first one I thought of.
Although that’s framed as advice to parents, not advice from parents. (Granted, the thread title doesn’t make this distinction, so you may have thought of it before reading the OP.)
:smack: Yup, just came back to say that, having read the OP more carefully. Never mind!
Cat’s in the Cradle, Harry Chapin
Cat Steven’s Father & Son
Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Yep, I came in to contribute “Teach Your Children Well” by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Never mind!
Blues In The Night, by Johnny Mercer.
Thank you for that; that suggestion made me laugh out loud.
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
Genesis
It’s gotta be this one: Percy Sledge - Take time to know her - YouTube
If he had listened to mama, he wouldn’t have come home to find his wife kissin’ on another man.
Man named Sue - Johnny Cash
My Pappy said, “Boy, yer gonna drive me to drinkin’
if you don’t stop drivin’ that Hod Rod Lincoln”
That’s what I was going to post.
Lonely Boy - Andrew Gold
Forever Young - Rod Stewart
Closing Time* - Semisonic
*Not obvious. The video explains the connection.
Genesis also featured Mrs. Barrel advising her son Harold not to commit suicide:
*Upon the ledge beside him
His mother made a last request.
“Come off the ledge
If your father were alive he’d be very, very, very upset
Just can’t jump, you just can’t jump
Your shirt’s all dirty, there’s a man here from the BBC
You just can’t jump”*
From Peter, Paul and Mary (or other folk group if you prefer), the following brilliant parental advice:
When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
“Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree.”
“Don’t put your faith in love, my boy”, my father said to me,
“I fear you’ll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree.”
Gettin’ into that sippin’ whiskey again, huh Dad?
Kooks - David Bowie
Merle Haggard - Mama Tried: Merle Haggard - Mama Tried - YouTube
As stand-up comic Rob Paravonian noted, “I’ll Be There For You” involves spelling out that “your mother warned you there’d be days like these” – you know, shortly after famously claiming that “no one told you life was gonna be this way.”
“THEY FORGOT WHAT THEY WROTE! 30 SECONDS INTO THEIR OWN DAMN SONG!”