1. A method, comprising: in a low power and lossy network (LLN) comprising a plurality of nodes, calculating a rate of change for parents of a node, the rate of change being a ratio of a number of changes in parent node observed for the node and a total number of observations of the node; calculating a parent preference for the node, the parent preference being a proportion of instances in which the node's most frequent parent is observed for the node and a total number of observations of the node; overriding a local next-hop algorithm for the node by selecting a parent node for the node based on at least one of the calculated rate of change for parents of the node and the calculated parent preference for the node; and instructing the node to remain in communication with a particular parent node having a minimal transmission delay compared to other potential parent nodes.