Telling your well-adjusted college student who his friends should be is one of those parenting moves that tends to backfire every time.

When a father began to worry that his son’s mostly female friend group might leave him socially vulnerable later in life, he started debating whether to bring it up.

And Reddit had some strong opinions on that.

Keep reading for the full story.

WIBTA if i asked my son to make more guy friends?

I am Indian and currently live in the US. My wife is British, and we have a son who is in college right now.

Since high school and now into university, I have noticed something that has been on my mind more and more.

This father grows increasingly concerned about his son’s friends.

Most of my son’s close friends are women.

He does have friends, he is social, and he is not isolated or anything like that — but the majority of his close circle seems to be female rather than male friends.

He clarifies his concern.

My concern is not that I think there is anything wrong with having female friends — I do not see it that way at all.

It is more from what I have seen among my own friends and their kids.

I have quite a few friends with slightly older kids, and we talk about these kinds of things sometimes.

To him, it’s part of a larger problem.

A number of their sons — especially other secular Indian guys growing up in North America — have struggled with a kind of guy loneliness issue.

They often feel stuck between stereotypes, where other Indian people can sometimes be more traditional and not relate to them, while non-Indian people sometimes assume they are traditional or treat them based on stereotypes too.

He thinks his son needs to make as many friends as possible while still in college.

Some of my friends’ sons have actually spoken about this quite openly — that it becomes harder later to build strong friendships once everyone is in serious relationships or focused on careers.

Right now in college it feels like the window is still open socially, but it can close faster than people expect.

He worries the friends his son has already made will soon go away.

That is part of why I am worried.

I also know that most of my son’s current friends, including his female friends, are already starting to get into long-term relationships.

My worry is that once that happens, his current social circle might naturally shift. And if he has not built enough male friendships by then, it might be harder for him to find that kind of support network later in life.

As their relationships get serious, his friends might not want to maintain close guy friendships — especially since for some of them he is their only close guy friend besides their partners.

He knows this may not come off the best way, but he still finds himself concerned for his son.

At the same time, I do not want to come across as controlling or like I am judging his friendships. He has always been quite open with me, and I do not want to damage that or make him feel like I am criticizing who he chooses to spend time with.

He has actually brought it up himself — that even though his classes are mostly men (engineering), he has somehow automatically befriended the women, as he finds the men are a little too loud and supposedly immature.

At the end of the day, his son is going to live his life the way he sees fit.

What did Reddit think?

This user doubts this is actually a valid concern.

Being overly controlling could come back to bite.

A friend is a friend, regardless of gender.

This father is being too hard on his son.

Friendships are to be cherished, not micromanaged.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.