Children wearing tails?

Have a look at the online communities she's part of. The fact she's only in year 8 and deeply in to this shows you do not pay attention to who she's talking to online.

Unless you’re going round telling your child/other children about the sexual fetish side of things then it is innocent. But then I don’t go round telling children why something they enjoy can be seen as sexual.

But discourage it how? If I tell her she can't be a Furry, she'll just want to do it 10000% more - trust me, she's a stubborn madam at the best of times!

She isn't doing anything wrong, she isn't pressuring her peers into being Furrys, she is a lovely, polite and kind young lady who just happens to enjoy wearing a tail

It's April 1st, right?

Honestly its insane. A school near us has a child who idenitifies as a dragon and school and parents suppport them. How do you get around the undeniable fact that they are NOT a dragon/fox whatever???

Thanks, we do keep an eye on what she does/watches online and we have parental controls in place - we're both tech-savvy and in no way naïve about what goes on online/in forums

As far as DD is concerned, she just loves animals and wearing her tail/ears/paws makes her feel good. There's nothing untoward about what she's doing (she doesn't wear them to school, she doesn't walk on all fours in public)

She would love to go to Furry-Con but it's over 18's only, as I know there is a sexual element to some people's Furry personas (but that's not only what it's about)

And whilst I don't understand her love of all things Furry, I do believe in letting it play out in the hope that she'll grow out of it as she gets older - but if I forbid her from any of it now, she'd just double down wouldn't she

Furry bollocks. Teachers actually have to have furry training now if you can believe it. There are kids literally crawling around meowing rather than talking because they identify as a cat. Wish I was kidding.*
Do you have any actual evidence of this happening at all? It appears to be absolute drivel from what I can find online
One if the kids I worked with trued ro ve like this ( I'm not based in a school)
She would put her hands up to her face like they were paws and meow when we talked to her. Mum would allow it.
We just ignored it and didn't engage and as I said in a previous post we would say that cats couldn't come swimming, go the fair.... whatever activity we were doing. She soon changed her mind.
I'm not sure if she's carried it on as her as her case is closed to us now.

Opened this thread thinking it would be about Eton uniforms 🤦‍♀️

My DS has a fox in his class at school, complete with tail 🙄. I honestly don’t know how teachers cope.

How can someone identify as a cat? Or dog or anything else. They are not a cat and no amount of wearing furry ears makes them one.

Same.

Seriously, parents really need to start parenting!

No harm? Identifying as a different species?

Christ, people were identifying as therians and furries when I was at secondary school fifteen years ago and now people are calling it a new trend! Most people at the time got it from cartoons, Disney films, Tumblr, or both. There was an awareness about the adult side of the community, but it remained very separate from my year group's fondness for cat ears, emo hair, and gloves that looked like paws. A couple of people would go to fan conventions by age sixteen or seventeen, but no earlier. Parents typically rolled their eyes and let us all get on with it, but admittedly nobody ever wore any of those accessories to school- I doubt anyone would have got away with it, since we'd get a bollocking for not having the right amount of stripes showing on our ties.

As long as you keep an eye on their internet usage to make sure the adult/fetish side stays separate, I really don't see a problem with this. So much children's media even now is based on anthropomorphic animals, it can't be surprising that young people enjoy the style.

Sadly if it escalates it’s a problem, better off discouraging it now.

My oldest children’s age group, had social anxiety
Younger age groups have trans
New one, appears to be furries.

They all like to be “ different”

Look up rainfurrest 2015.

Oh god not the furry thing. It’s an adult sexual fetish that children have found the “cute” part of. Problem is the online areas for furries are not cute and fluffy and friendly once you did under the surface.

It’s out and out fetishism.

There is one at dd’s school. It even has a YouTube channel. It hisses at people and meows and rolls around on the floor at school.

I’ve offered dd a water spray bottle 🤣

Crazy that parents are openly allowing their children to take part in such a thing tbh. This isn’t harmless dress up. Not to the people they are talking to and will be sharing their photos with.

Sadly it’s not misinformation. I’m a child psychologist and this furry/therian stuff comes up sometimes in the clinic. It’s a big issue in lots of secondary schools and is a lot more than play/fashion.

but then you'd have to empty the litter tray!! 😝

A 4/5/6 year old playing dress up fine. Anearly teenager who wants/thinks/identifies as a cat ridiculous. The world has gone insane.

I dont know how schools cope with this shit.

The furry fandom is like the anime random online.

You get a whole range of people who engage with it. Some of them are kids who don't fit in and it gives them an identity. Some are kids who like the creative side of it, like drawing the characters or dressing up. Some like the role playing aspect of it. Just like anime, some are men with deranged sexual fetishes who use the fandom as a smokescreen to participate in, and get minors to participate in, their fetish.

Just because some men online use it for fetish reasons doesn't mean all instantiations of pretending to be an animal are fetish driven or bad. Just like anime: just because there exists a whole load of depraved anime porn, doesn't mean that all anime is bad or fetish driven. Just because there's people with a fetish for high heels, doesn't mean that all instances of wearing high heels are fetish driven. And so on.

I didn’t believe it either until I met her. The furry in case was an older student having done a gap year and had implants placed in her cheeks for screw in whiskers. Completely adopted the life on a Cat. Very rarely spoke and I suspect had mental health issues. Very sad.

Do you have any actual evidence of this happening at all? It appears to be absolute drivel from what I can find online

But then again they might be accessing all sorts of dangerous people online. Best to be alert and keep children safe from online grooming.

I have a couple of kids in a club I run that occasionally wear tails (both 10). They don’t howl/pur/act like animals or anything like that.
that’s how they choose to express themselves so I’m not bothered by it.

It isn't - that's a big misconception

Furry fandom - Wikipedia