Sometimes, parenting and gaming just don’t mix well together.

Recently, Twitter user @amour_rapid has been receiving a lot of internet flak for smashing apart his young son’s gaming aspirations. After his son spoke up about wanting to become a professional gamer, the Japanese father decided deliver a merciless beat-down in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – which apparently traumatized the child.

@amour_rapid himself reflected on the entire episode, through a now-hidden tweet:

“Recently my son has been saying he wants to become a pro gamer, so I didn’t hold back at all against him playing Smash Brothers. I beat him so badly that he started crying his eyes out.”

Online discussion about @amour_rapid’s parenting methods have been divisive. Some have commented that his son should be stronger and not cry over such failures. Meanwhile, others were very concerned about the boy’s self-confidence in the future:

“I think the kids aren’t crying because they couldn’t win, but because they feel betrayed by the adult. What do those adults hope to accomplish by snipping children’s dreams in the bud?”

“Now his son is going to have it imprinted on his mind that every time he has a dream, his parent is going to crush it. I think the poor kid is going to grow up to be the kind of person who gives up on anything right away.”

“It’s pretty much the same as if a child said ‘I want to be a scientist,’ and then you suddenly made him take a college entrance exam, so that he’d cry when he couldn’t answer the questions…”

Presently, @amour_rapid has hidden his Twitter profile – so it’s impossible to tell whether his son is alright. We can only hope that the whole ordeal hasn’t soured their family relations in any way.

What do you think about this? Was @amour_rapid too cruel to his son, or was it a necessary life-lesson? Let us know in your comments below.