Child identifies as a wolf ... WTF?

YABU for falling for this nonsense.

Yup, you're still missing the point. Unfortunately I don't have the crayons to draw it out for you in a clear enough way that you can see over your rapidly jerking knee so I'll leave you to it.

Not quite sure that you're responding to the post I've written or the post you think in your head I've written? No matter.

I responded to you saying that "The point is to encourage exactly the kind of fear and outrage being seen in this thread. It's aim isn't to "other" the furries etc, it's to "other" the people and groups who are rumoured to be supporting and encouraging the furries etc."

Safeguarding children is every responsible adults responsibility. It's not "othering" to raise concerns about therians with roots in an adult sexual fetish being picked up by teenagers.

People can choose to ignore safeguarding risks to children - that's up to them. But women on Mumsnet are pretty keen on ensuring that our children are safe and if there's a legitimate risk (which this is), then we're right to discuss it..

Thankfully we don't have anywhere near the same binary (no pun intended) political choices as they do in the US.

If you want to say no to men identifying in to women's sports in the US, or to children being given irreversible medication and/or surgery to support their perceived gender identity, you have to pick Trump. Which also means picking a largely homophobic agenda (obviously LGB involves same sex attraction, not identifying as a different sex), anti-abortion and pro-guns.

As a liberally-minded, LGB supporting, pro-choice and anti-gun person, I would be stuck in an impossible situation. Trump seems like a nutter (e.g. suggesting people could drink bleach to get rid of covid) and personally, I prefer my politicians not to be up in court.
As for Kamala Harris, see above re the impact of gender identity belief, particularly on vulnerable children and young adults.

But the cat doesn't know that!!

You think someone's sense of identity should be solely confined to their age group? So no straight, gay, Christian, Welsh, Swiftie, skater. Nothing other than just "teenager". Yeah, good luck with that.

Framing what I wrote as an attempt to coerce anyone to do anything is missing the point so massively I'm somewhat at a loss. You can believe me about the tactics and impact of current widescale disinformation programmes, or you can stick your head under your pillow and pretend it's not happening. Makes no difference to me either way.

Hmm. I think it's one thing for a primary aged student to play around with this idea, wear cat ears etc, but when they're a teen with access to the internet I would shut it down immediately.

I am a well known digital artist, a ridiculous portion of my income comes from Furries (i know...). Teenagers should absolutely 100% not be involved with this community. Without going into detail it is extremely depraved. I would be reporting any teen to a safeguarding lead if they mentioned being a furry.

Pleased this thread is still going and that all the "it's a culture war, fake facts" etc posters are posting. Because so many of these discussion are shut down and parents coerced / bullied into pandering to all this with their children instead of saying No.

If you're a parent and this is happening in your child's school (and hopefully it's a tiny minority of schools who've been persuaded that this nonsense is OK) then please raise merry hell. Complain and complain again until it's stopped.

Schools are places where children learn in a safe and ordered environment. Children should not be exposed to delusions, fantasies and ideologies rooted in sexual fetishes.

There are clearly furries in society.

There are transsexuals (i.e. those who have had an operation to remove their penis and testicles, plus the creation of a "neo-vagina") and there are transvestites (also known as autogynophiles) who do not have operations, so retain their penis and testicles.

Furries, transsexuals and transvestites are all predicated on the same thing: that it's possible to have a soul, separate from the body that is of a different species/sex to the body.

Of all the above, some will be true believers and some will say that they believe it, in order to gain access to things that they wouldn't otherwise. Unfortunately, those that feign a belief are often very good at making it look like they genuinely hold that belief e.g. they talk about having known they were [a girl] since they were young. Perhaps also they might share stories of having stolen or borrowed their mum's or sister's underwear.

Society seems to find it easier to say that the furry stuff is "nonsense" but more difficult re males who identify in to women's sports or (like Isla Bryson, who is one of many), women's prisons.

This is a really interesting article written by a self-declared autogynophile. He also looks at how transsexualism fits in - obviously that is very different, as you say:

https://archive.is/2pQIq

Did you actually listen to the discussion on Radio 4?

I am not able to use the preferred pronouns. It isn't that I don't want to I just can't

I wouldn't worry too much. I used to think I was a wolf.

But I'm alright nooooowwwwwwwwwwww

Sorry. Juvenile I know but I couldn't see that this joke had already been made and it was an opportunity too good to miss.

I worked in a girls school and an old colleague tells me that they now have a pupil who identifies as a boy and she is permitted to wear trousers. None of the other pupils are

This is where half of this trans nonsense comes from, who said wearing trousers makes you a boy and wearing a skirt makes you a girl? Absolute bloody madness.

Clickbait nonsense. Get a grip.

I haven't read the full thread, OP, but just wanted to agree. I feel your despair. What should have happened when said child said "I am a wolf" was a firm "no you are not". The school should further request that this child learn at home until 'human' again. Sadly this situation is a symptom of the general trans/gender insanity which has infected education, councils, NHS, judiciary, organisations, institutions, charities, media, BBC etc. It started with preferred pronouns. It is no lie that "preferred pronouns are rhohypnol" either. Insisting that using preferred pronouns is 'respectful' misses the point. Using them is not a neutral act, it forces users to partake in a lie with the deluded pronoun owner. That way lies madness. I have checked the votes and am amazed that only 92% agree with you. I assumed it would be 99-100% to be honest.

In primary school, I'd treat this as playful (although not the toileting!)

If it's a primary school child wearing an animal costume at home I'd treat it as completely playful. Mine did this. We had tons of costumes.

However, if that child was using the phrase "I identify as a [animal type]" and/or insisted that they needed to wear the outfit (or ears/tail) to school, I would treat it as a safeguarding risk. I would assume that the child had stumbled across something that was pulling them towards the very adult world of furrydom. This world has a big crossover with gender identity, presumably so that it can be "legitimised". Until relatively recently it was all underground. The first I heard of it was about 15 years ago when the then boyfriend of a colleague told her he was into it. She decided to leave him to it and we just figured it was a bit nerdy. He was a geeky, generally shy guy who worked in IT.

I thought she was a cat, not a panda?

This story has been fact checked. It’s true. Every teacher on here probably has a similar story. So I don’t understand why it’s all ‘blah blah kitty litter is for school shootings… can’t possibly be true’

this is not on teachers. Teachers are in a battle ground where they risk losing their jobs over discrimination and dealing with delusional parents who want to excuse their little darlings behaviour.

Was there a full moon by any chance?

Next door neighbour drives a black cab, comes across all sorts and is very tolerant and patient. Lost his shit with a woman whose daughter (aged around 12) identified as a cat, was dressed in a fur cat suit, meowed instead of talking, but then started 'leaping' about in the back and scratching everything. Neighbour asked her to stop and she hissed at him. Neighbour asked mum to stop her and mum said that daughter was just "being her cat-self and not to worry as she didn't actually have claws".

Neighbour told mum that the cat needed to sit still or the fare would be over. Funnily enough the cat then sat still.

The fucking PANDERING blows my mind.

I know someone who took his dog out for a walk in a park one night and came across someone in a wolf mask. He got out of there sharpish.

Do the others kids go along with things like this or just laugh at them?

Serious question

I do wish transwomen would stop trampling all over women’s boundaries.