This article describes the goals, practices and underlying values of parents raising children in the violent context of Brazilian slums. The results show that mothers act within a multivocal moral framework, combining 'street cultural logic' with 'middle-class' perspectives. Survival and a strong sense of morality are taught through both adaptation to and dissociation from the neighbourhood context. The analyses challenge the idea of a homogeneous 'street' culture in these communities and show that various cultural repertoires and multiple interconnected perspectives on morality are cultivated in response to violence. The study provides ways to interpret parental strategies to organise a moral counteroffensive as a lever for change.