Children wearing tails?

There's a big difference between a child dressing up and pretending to be a cat but who comes in for dinner as a human, and a child who identifies as a cat, acts like one and expects to be treated as one (routinely, not a one-off because the kid's still playing).

This whole thing of being able to choose your identity and then expect others to completely go along with your fiction has gone too far.

(And yes I have the TRAs in my sights too.)

My dog reckons fake furries are weirdos 🐾

The fact there are parents of secondary aged children dressing up as cats on this thread is a real worry.
Make believe is for dress up is for primary children - horses, dinosaurs, helicopters etc. Older children should not be identifying as animals while in school and it defies belief that any schools - especially secondary schools - allow this.

I suppose, in their defence, at least cats exist. Unlike gender.

Problem is the children of schools and parents try to ban it are using the trans identity thing as their argument.

If Johnny can be jenny even though his scientifically cannot be jenny at all biologically. Why can I not be a cat or a dog or a bloody narwhal because neither are possible genetically.

The doors where left wide open.

We had a cat in the last school I worked at, he had ASD and would miaow etc when spoken to. He often came in with cats ears and once a tail, but I always confiscated them- same as any other non uniform item.

Pre teen with a tail saying they're a furry- go right ahead, as long as their internet is being carefully watched.

Children/teens identifying as Therians- absolutely not ok. We are humans, end of. This isn't the gender debate- it's a different species!

its a thing at my children's secondary school. They go round on all fours.
There’s a few at the local primary, teachers insist on tails on desks during lessons. But break times they can have them back.

it is different to goths, emos etc. they still exist. The harm isn’t from the dressing up, it’s the fetishisation of it by adults, it’s the online community and the fact they can’t just have fun as cats it’s encouraged to “identify as a cat” and railroaded into that life time decision to become one

Would you like your gp to identify as a cat?

There was a group of girls in my son's primary school (YR6) who used to bark/miaow/howl at eachother every day then turn up wearing tails and cat ears on non uniform days. It was always so strange to witness.

Love it. Parents need to get a grip otherwise the little darlings will be scent marking the curtains next.🤣

I think it’s a natural follow on from gender identity though. We are now raising our children to accept that whilst some people may have been born male/female they are in fact the opposite sex or neither sex and they are legally able to identify as whatever they want.

It’s therefore unsurprising that some kids who really connect with animals then go on to think that it must mean that despite being born a human, they are in fact a cat.

As I understand it, it’s a past life thing. There are websites where you can work out what animal you were. Oddly it’s always wolves, panthers etc rather than, say, hamsters. And yes, just another fashion thing that kids do to shock their parents. I don’t think tails etc should be allowed in school though.

It’s the “furries” absolute bullshit. Some kids at my daughter’s school do this too and are permitted to carry on - they apparently identify as a cat / dog. Insanity that grown ups are allowing this to carry on!

I did, too.......

I just showed this thread to my cat and she is fuming.

Oh I've just read the other comments and seen that some children actually think they are cats and wear them to school!! I've never heard of this. I thought this was just a fancy dress thing! Why don't the schools just send them home for not wearing the correct uniform??

But... how can the furries who identify as cats or dogs base this as more fundamental than GENDER and get away with it? Imagine if women were to do that, you know real non-male women.

Also 11 and 12 years olds should not be dressing up in fantasy la la land when at school full stop, no matter what it is.

I used to be a Werewolf.

But I’m all right……nowooooo……..

That's a lot of 'why's' but fuck me, it blows my mind - a whole generation who is never told no!
That last part of the comment is exactly right.
When we get referrals through about children some reports advise us not to say ' no ' to them as it makes them angry.
When we trace it back 100 times out of a 100 parents have let a child have everything they want because they didn't want to say no. There comes a time when they do have to say no and the child has no resilience to handle it and all he'll kicks off.
Bloody ridiculous 🙄
We are getting more and more children like this. These children aren't ND. They just haven't got the skills to handle life.

I think we perhaps need to separate out the concepts of "identification" in the modern social sense and the idea that children are actually believing they're cats, dogs, or dragons. I'm sure almost all of these kids, if asked to explain, understand that they are human beings who identify with animals rather than believing themselves to be animals, physically. Perhaps they identify with the stereotypical characteristics of certain animals, or think life would be easier as an animal, or even feel a sense of kinship with some animals- all common enough feelings expressed in a more contemporary, and admittedly often confusing, way.

Not that I wouldn't be surprised if a good amount of them would claim to be literal cats just to wind up their parents and teachers, of course. There may well be an element of that involved, too.

And catch mice as one of their household chores?

I noticed a girl aged around 13 wearing tails and ears on a day out recently. She was with what I assume were her parents.
Also saw at the same place and day, two young women (maybe 13 &16/17) and the younger one was walking around with what appeared to be an assistance dog, except it was a “toy” stuffed animal. Full sized and didn’t appear as though it was for play.
I found both things quite bemusing if I’m being honest.

It depends.
If they're wearing them because they just think it's fun/cute then fine. Kids of all ages always have and always will want to wear things their parents think are weird/shit. If it's just for fashion - and lord knows there's some strange fashions -then it's pretty harmless; not really any different to the "Junkies Baddy Powder" t-shirts a lot of my mates wore at a similar age because of Mark Owen doing so. They had no clue, nor did their parents🤣

If it's something they're doing because they "identify as a cat" or they walk around miaowing etc. or some other thing then that's much less okay and is far too close to the furry community/fetish that some adults choose to take part in.

I’m sorry but I find this so bizarre! As a pp has mentioned I suspect it’s got roots in adult sexual fetish.. I think there’s probably quite a lot wrong with intense dressing up and alternative identity for a prolonged period of time beyond about 7.