how to consider a friend to be a real friend?

I think a friend is someone that is there when the chips are down, when there isn't any advantage left to be around you. I think a friend is someone that tells you the truth even though it hurts.

a real friend is someone who is there for me if needed. Not someone who is there daily just because he/she is bored and also not that person who is asking me time after time for money or to help out but is never willing to help me out. Untill now I did not find that person (except for my kids)

of course you can, first you have to be a real giver and then expect less from them.

I'd like to consider each and every one of my friends to be true friends. If they are not true, then that really is going to be a friendship that is like on a shaky ground. Then again, I am someone who is rather selective with who I am going to consider to be my friend. There are a lot of people who are merely acquaintances, which I get along with rather well. Friends do come, and friends do go sadly enough however. That is why we should cherish pretty much every single moment of the friendship. There are times where people try to be your friend, but the friendship does not work out for whatever reason, perhaps their efforts are going to be last than noble. The trust that builds friendship is something that takes time to build and it breaks within an instant.