Children wearing tails?

@Loooooo i think it's something either an older sibling said or someone at school teased them about. I think that's the difference, the online element is where it gets weird. Otherwise it's just play. None of them have phones and they all had very limited access to you tube or other devices so I feel it was very naive and childish. I'm glad the phase passed though.

You have to be joking

How do 9 year olds know what therians are? My 9 year old wouldn’t even know the word. I don’t think 9 year olds pretending to be cats is necessarily a bad thing, 9 year olds are still young. But knowing what therians are would concern me- where have they got that from? What have they been watching?

Getting away with what exactly, wearing the cutesy cat ears? They were an anime thing before they were a "furry" thing. These kids don't actually think they're animals, they're just playing. I mean, perhaps a tiny tiny minority do, but most of them don't.

The adults are the hysterical ones. They a kid playing and decide they should be grown up already, conclude the kid thinks they're actually a horse.

Turns out it's about this www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/aug/21/japanese-man-dog-long-haired-collie-suit-toco-in-pictures

I thought this was going to be about this....

Haven't rtft yet but had to reply. My DD went through this phase and is just coming out of it at 11. Started around 9. She did quadrobics with her 3 pals, the tails and ears and masks only were used during play. They did on a few occasions go to the woods with a parent so they could be cats alone. Us parents were a bit wtf at first but the general consensus was to just roll with it. In fairness they never went too public but they would have walked around in tails near their houses, but not say in a shopping centre or village. They were too young anyhow. They insisted they were not furries but therians so yes there was definitely an online influence coming from somewhere. I think they believed they were cat spirits or something, I don't think they genuinely believed it but pretended to.

If a kid is doing it alone there is definitely an attention seeking element so personally I would ignore and just see it as child's play. I would feel very different if it was a 14 yr old.

Except not accept.

Do most kids at 11 or 12 like to dress up as animals; most of them will be heading to secondary school, I can't imagine anybody I know and have known that age who would think this is anything other than highly embarrassing- and I have teenagers and we live in a very liberal city, where if this was a regular thing mg DD would have told me! My DD is 13 and likes Brandy Melville and vinted which I think is far more age appropriate! When my DC were little thy loved dressing up but this was up to about 7 or 8 accept on Halloween.

Neither do the people assuming its this furry nonsense.

20 years? Do you mean someone like the man who was dressed as a cat on Big Brother celebrity edition?

That's disgusting! Did no one ask her if she was ok?

Not sure it's different from you claiming it's everywhere without having surveyed us all 🙄

When I lived in London (a few months ago), I noticed this a lot. Secondary school kids would walk past my house wearing tails and cat ears. It's weird.

I'd be interested to hear from parents who allow this, and encourage it by the purchasing of items, as to how they think there's not something troubling going on?

Let's take away the blatant fetishism and issues with the furry community for a moment. 11+ children wearing tails and pretending to be animals either for a vast part of their day at home, or in public? Do you really think that's a normal thing for this age?

I'm not saying children should be growing up too fast or that we should be encouraging it. But this is abnormal behaviour for that age-group. When I was 11 I'd started my periods. My peers had outgrown dolls (at least they said they had), and we were moving into that strange gap between young childhood and adolescence.

For a brief while at university I tutored as a part time job. The 11 year olds were far beyond this sort of stage. It's a regression. If you had a new baby and an older sibling suddenly began to pretend to be a baby too, you'd think "ah, this is in response to the changes. Perhaps I'd better spend more time with them, or make sure they're involved, blahblahblah, etc."

Yet this is okay? If my child started doing this, I'd be concerned. Deeply. As for ASD children doing it, I'd probably be more concerned in case it left them in vulnerable situations they may not feel able to navigate.

It's not cute and it's not normal, and parents really need to take off the blinkers and get with it.

*I'm a teacher - I've never known of this "furry training" of which you speak. Where does this occur??
I'd be intrested as well. It not been part of my CPD.

Exactly. Doesn't happen. There are regularly threads about it on here though, and the claims keep being made.

Could be our 11 yo daughter but she doesn't howls. Yet. I don't mind. It will pass.

No way sorry , no child of mine is wearing a tail. It is a thing, there are loads of them locally. Too anime, too closely aligned with other weird ideologies.

But wearing a high heel and pretending to be a high heel are different things. Forget fetish this is so divorced from reality it is the definition of insanity. I'm honestly surprised how many people on here think this is harmless. No wonder these kids are getting away with it.

My grand daughter did this on and off from about 5 years old to 12 or 13, we just accepted it with no fuss, if the circumstances were appropriate, Ie. not at school. She is now 17 and no longer wears a tail!

Sadly, very real. There are more stories I could tell about the fox but then it could get very identifying as we cant be the only family at the secondary school who discusses the latest fox antics around the dinner table.

I'm a teacher - I've never known of this "furry training" of which you speak. Where does this occur?.

People obsessed by trainers are also a bit limited

Yes in my DS' school, they would one hundred percent be bullied if anyone tried that! And same for one of my daughter's schools (she goes to a mixed) - it might be slightly toned down but wouldn't be tolerated. But in my other daughter's school, everyone seems to just ignore it! I wouldn't say everyone's completely supportive and apparently they make fun of them behind their backs but really the "furries" are just left to get on with it...