I heard an idea on the internet that a father should be friends with his son. An absolutely wrong idea.

I heard an idea on the internet that a father should be friends with his son. An absolutely wrong idea. 1. For a person there is no closer friend than a father. The father is not obliged to declare it or make it known. 2. The father’s station is lofty; he has no need to declare his friendship to a child of his own loins. The harm of a father telling his child, “I am your friend, I love you”: 1. The father loses his awe. 2. The child comes to see his father not as strong and mysterious but as ordinary and weak, and can no longer lean on him. 3. The child will make friends with others anyway, because friendship requires equality. Father and child are not equal. The father must remain a FATHER worthy of his name. For this, here is what he does: 1. Supervision. Let the child always feel supervised. Let him not be self-willed and headstrong. 2. Let the father not go too far in anger. If the child makes a mistake, he MUST be forgiven twice and, the third time, certainly punished. For this, the child must be warned in advance, and afterward it must be explained to him that what he did was wrong. 3. Advice. Whether the child likes it or not, he must be given advice regularly, at certain intervals. Only let the advice not turn into nagging. Practical, lively, interesting. 4. Give the child knowledge from age 6 to 10. That is writing, reading, arithmetic and the knowledge of knowing God. During this period the child must have playtime. 1–2 hours every day. More on certain days. 5. From age 10 he must be taught a trade. A craft, repair work and the like. 6. From age 16 one should ask his opinion on certain matters, correct him if he is wrong, and accept what he gets right. 7. From the age of 6–7 a trustworthy teacher must be found for the child. The teacher should give him knowledge whose study takes a long time and contribute to his upbringing along the way. The teacher MUST be an honest, pure person, tested by trials, a family man with no problems in his family, of good lineage. 8. From age 17 one should take the son along to the neighborhood’s gatherings and entrust him with important tasks. 9. No excessive attention is paid to the child’s feelings and emotions. 10. From age 3: the child’s clothes are worn until they are worn out; food is given as is fitting and eaten without leaving anything. 11. The child is not spoiled too much; his good deeds are praised a little at a time, in moderation. 12. The child’s time must be strictly watched 24/7, and the father MUST know where he is and what he is doing. 13. Let the child never be left to useless and harmful things. 14. Do not scold the child, do not insult him, do not crush him for his mistakes — and do not be lax either. 15. Let him do sports steadily.

In this way, when the child grows up, there is hope that he will take a good shape; he will be grateful for what his father did and will remain loving toward his father. Do not say, “I will show my friendship to the child from the time he is knee-high”; do the things a father does, and that is all.