I feel you are focusing too hard on the listening and as a result miss the deeper point of the post. I would even argue that the part about listening constitutes only a minor point at best. Heck, the last paragraph of your reply pretty much sums up the whole point I'm making at the end of the post.

I'll quickly try to summarize my points again, and hope they come out more clearly this time:

• Thesis: it is a moral duty to remove bad friends from your life and surround yourself with only good friends.

• How do you define good and bad friends?

  • Good friends build you up and want the best for the best part of you.
  • Bad friends are only interested (often unconsciously) in pulling you down. Not listening is only one of the bad signs, jealousy of your fortune is another example of bad friend behaviour. Their actions are often times a result of their own disappointments in life.

• Why is it moral to remove bad friends from your life?

  • Putting up with their behaviour gives them tacit consent to continue their abuse towards themselves, you and others. (Giving a clear sign that you're not putting up with their behaviour might even wake them up and improve their lives.)

• Hence, it is your moral duty to end bad friendships and remove these people from your life.

Hope this clarify things. Shame I couldn't get this across in the post itself. I promise to try harder next time, senpai. :-D

Also, I think a child-parent relationship is a totally different beast than a regular friendship. For one you can un-friend someone quite easily (and this happens all the time), but you can't un-child or un-parent someone. So you are almost forced to accept all the bad parts about your child or parent. Which brings a whole set of new problems, but also its own unique kind of beauty.