I wouldn't call that an appeal to authority? but even if it were, your comments need to follow the site guidelines regardless of what other commenters are doing. You broke them badly above.
You don't see how that's an appeal to authority, I don't see how my comment violated the site guidelines. I wasn't name-calling or swiping at anyone, I was merely refuting the parents appeal to authority.
If you tell me you don't see how "You've completely missed the mark" breaks the site guidelines, I guess I can see how that's borderline. But "you have no clue whatsoever"? That's a straightforward attack/swipe of exactly the sort you're asked not to post here!
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html