Run 'npm run watch' on MacOS or Virtualbox

is it better to run npm script in the terminal from my mac or from my virtual machine (Parallels)

It shouldn't matter - the compiled assets should be the same in either case.

If you prefer not to have Node, NPM etc installed on the host, then Homestead already has this available to you and it is not a major inconvenience to SSH into the virtual machine to execute the command.

i suggest to use MacOS terminal to compile assets with laravel-mix