Child identifies as a wolf ... WTF?

We all know this, but we also know there are kids who identify as all kinds of things under the furry and therian banner, and that some adults are taking it seriously. All but the hardest of thinking know kids arent being given access to litter boxes at school.

I seriously feel like I'm living in 1984 these days.

I think many of these stories need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

It's jogged my memory about a boy I taught - thought he was a car. (11) Quite normal in lessons but come lesson change time he was off driving down the corridor - engine noises, skids, careering into walls etc.

Some of there cat stuff comes from mixing up stories, conspiracy theories etc. And where from - where do you think the US. 2+2=5.

So cat litter in classrooms. As we all know classroom shootings are a thing in the USA. Schools there prepare for such a thing - door locks, drills etc. Non as effective a 6ft fencing and a near total lack of gun ownership in the UK.

One of the preparations, I believe, is cat litter and a tray. For those taken short in a long lockdown.

There should not be a single teenager in any UK school identifying as anything other than a teenager. That's the whole point. It's not a "woke smear". It's a dangerous failure of adults to establish boundaries, to safeguard children from dubious adult ideologies and dodgy adults. The fact that this is anywhere near secondary schools (and it is only a small number of schools I suspect) is failure to protect children.

Framing this as "othering" is a crude attempt to coerce women on here out of doing what all decent adults should do - safeguard the young. Schools are where children learn in a safe, rational and ordered learning environment . Ideologies founded in adult sexual fetishes have no place in schools.

Yep!

There was a boy in my college (totally normal in every other way, which sounds unbelievable I know) who identified as a wolf. We found his freewebs site and he was writing all sorts of crazy sexual stuff about knotting, rutting, etc. He absolutely believed he was a wolf, and his parents had shrugged it off for years. I remember him telling the class bits and pieces.

I had one of those "people you might know" recommendations on FB a few years ago. It was his name, and from what I could see of his profile it was still all wolf nonsense! Parents should have bloody knocked it on the head when he was young.

It's alright people saying they'll grow out of it, but that's not always the case. Not if they're into it during a time like puberty and involved in a community online. It can quite easily become a part of their personality!

Why is it lumped in with trans? Because being told you can be a man when you're a woman or vice versa is confusing kids into believing all kinds of weird things.

Of course, we can tackle the trans thing separately, but the ideology and tactics used to defe nd them are pretty much one and the same.

do you mean a furry? Ive heard of this in a few schools, it's allowed apparently. Mind you, we had people who identified as whatever they wanted at work so....

Previous thread on therians with adult therian joining in.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/preteens/5126399-what-the-fuck-are-theriens

The not true bit is the stuff about the parents forcing the child into a cage and feeding raw meat. It's so obviously made-up bollocks to cater to the kind of American who think that all modern children need a good whupping and a proper hair cut.

But, the OP story wasn't even about litter boxes, just a kid who identifies as a wolf, and I agree people should not be putting out embellishments to these stories - that is very wrong. But, what's wrong with saying children should not be allowed to identify as animals at school? What's wrong with pointing out the very real problem with furries?

Is it not obvious if you say a boy can become a girl, some kids will think you can identify as anything you want? If it's stoking division to even mention or discuss any of these issues then how are we not living in a 1984 society where we should all put up and shut up in case someone is offended, to the detriment of us all?

The vast majority of my opinions are "woke". I'm pro-immigration, pro racial equality, voted for Corbyn. It doesn't hurt me if people talk about furries in schools or whatever other unpalatable truths may be going on. We need to talk about this stuff.

My friend did too and said all this stuff we hear about but don’t believe is actually happening. She left schooling altogether because she couldn’t stomach all the nonsense anymore.

I can understand why people think this is so far-fetched that it must be untrue, that it must be silly reactionary women jumping to a dog-whistle.
BUT..
My daughter had a girl in her class who identified as a cat for about 3 years. This resulted in her being scratched and disturbed as the 'cat' rolled on the floor and sat on the table. The teachers were totally disempowered tto do anything about it.

This is a large-ish but bog standard, boring town and a very normal comp.

Now, I have no doubt the 'cat' had very real mental health needs that weren't being met - she seems to have grown out of it now- but that makes it more, not less, disturbing, surely?

Such bullshit. It's just a new version of the 'kitty litter boxes in schools' thing.
No teachers 'go along with' a child 'identifying' as anything thing other than a human being.
Surely there's other more feasible ways of tackling the trans debate that don't involve obvious nonsense?

I do agree that all this divisive shit is amplified online by those who seek to benefit one way or another. But that's probably a message you want to take to the identity dudes and kids caught up in this adult - led faux progressive shit.

The negative effects of identity obsession and gender ideology on the ground for women - particularly those less privileged - and children are real however. Just because The Guardian won't print half the stuff that makes middle class white men look bad it doesn't mean it's not happening.

Can you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean ...

My DC are older now (thank goodness I say) and this reminds of a phase DD went through wanting to dress in quite inappropriate for the occasion clothing. Things along the lines of short shorts for school non uniform days etc. (she had them for beach/swimming wear). So she was told she isn't going to school dressed like that. Of course a few words were thrown my way and a bit of a sulk ensued. She changed outfits, probably tried it again a few times, and again changed when she didn't get to leave to go to school dressed that way.

Fast forward some years and not that long ago she thanked me for stepping in and laying down the law. In with that was her discussing her horrific eyebrow choices and really cringed looking back at photos. And even said, why did you let me do that to my eyebrows. They were so bad.

Children push their luck. It's a rite of passage if you like. And then it is for the parent to step in and discourage the behaviour. Really it's just parenting, Our only job in that role, is to get our children to be functioning adults that can cope in the world.

So when a child comes out dressed as a wolf in the morning, where is the parent? All fine to wear wolf clothes to a party or wherever it's acceptable. But I am going with these children have not been subjected to that uncomfortable moment where the parent has said, hey up, no you aren't going to school like that. And it's spiralled. It's is okay to hurt your child's feelings from time to time. How will they learn otherwise? All this, 'well their feelings and thoughts count as we take our cue from them'. Yes they do, but where is it going to end?

Our job as a parent is to raise a child to be able to function into adulthood. I'm repeating this I know And by god, at times that is not easy. How are these children going to go into adulthood if they will only do whatever they want to, and not be able to pick up what is acceptable, and what isn't.

If they want to join in the fetish community as adults, that is all fine. They are choosing that path using an adult brain. Kids don't have adult brains, that is why the responsible adult is there.

And yes is agree with pp, that parents won't be aware of the fetish connection here. It is beyond scary.

Because, again, the point isn't that there's a few kids who are furries. The point is that these kinds of litter-boxes-in-schools stories are being actively created, amplified and embellished as part of a deliberate disinformation campaign. 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.

Those groups are often banded together under the banner of "woke" and the aim is to tar anyone who is the slightest bit small-l liberal as "woke". One of the more commonly employed smears is to encourage the thought that anything "woke" is a direct or indirect danger to children. It's purpose is to encourage a good-vs-evil, us-vs-them divisiveness. That's the culture war.

Thanks for proving my point!

You might think women's safety and dignity is yawn-worthy, but most decent people certainly don't.

There are safeguarding rules about taking photos of young people.

There was a mumsnet thread on Therians - not a right wing trope because they exist very much within the liberal left milieu- a few months ago and an real adult therian popped in to address the "bigots" ie the great majority of us posters. She was barking mad.
There are reddit threads and online as well as meatspace communities. https://therian-guide.com/index.php/6-community

Yawn.

What isn’t true? The child’s behaviour or the parents’ response? If the whole story is not true then rest assured - if my 16 year old tried to identify as a wolf it’s what I’d be doing.

I know a staff member at a UK 6th form college where a child wanted to identify as a swan- the staff basically ignored it though.

I work with young people.

Assuming this is not a story been invented to see if someone will put it on the radio or tv.

One of the few cases where I would support someone complaining to the local authority (if not an academy) or Ofsted without exhausting the school complaints procedure.

Yes, it's used as a polite way of saying "shut up you stupid, silly women" all too often, isn't it?