to think that children in your child's class don't identify as animals?

Yes i know of a butterfly and a cat both girls are in their teens. I think the difference is with younger DC it is imaginative play but by secondary school and beyond that it is more than this and other issues should be considered.

Exactly this. My dd pretended she was a dog, and a horse. Think I did as a child. Hoards of kids do. It’s part of play.I’d rather they did that than be buying skin care and spending hours on phones during their primary school years.

It's really not.

You think a couple hundred people got together to make shit up? Even the woman who posted in anger about her own daughter and who felt judged by the thread?

You could to worse than read and learn with an open mind you know.

Reading through this thread is really sad - so many judgemental people out there. I think some are aimed at me as I was the first person to post about my little girl saying she is a therian.

First of all, like a PP said, you don't know which parents are 'encouraging' it or not behind closed doors. There might be things going on in the background like autism, but really no parents are going to be actively encouraging their kids to believe they're actually an animal not a human are they?

In my case, my 7 year old has always adored animals and has pretended to be them since the moment she could talk. She is not autistic as far as I am aware (although it runs strongly in one side of family but I have no concerns).

She doesn't have a phone or social media, and doesn't have access to the Internet (other than with direct supervision anyway). She is occasionally allowed to watch YouTube kids. However, she does attend school and these things trickle down. I think she heard the word therian from her step sister on her dad's side and again from kids at school. There are a few different groups in different years who call themselves therians, I've seen them dressing up outside of school as my daughter does, and they talk about it at school. They are primary aged and its completely harmless and I'd say normal!

To them, the word is not sexualised and simply refers to believing you used to be an animal in a past life and still have some of the traits. I think it is a bit of a fad or a trend at the moment and more than likely will pass.

OBVIOUSLY if this carries on into secondary school or older it may be more of a problem, but I would certainly not ever let her wear a tail to school or demand a litter tray or any of these stories you hear.

But what I am not going to do is shame my 7 year old for pretending to be a cat. I don't encourage it and certainly don't encourage some of the language she's learnt around it, but I truly think the bigger deal I make about it the more she may be pushed towards rebelling in the future.

Her and her friends are not hurting anyone, it's not sexualised in any way shape or form and are just having fun. I will continue to reassess how I deal with it if it carries on when she's much older.

People need to be less judgemental and much, much kinder.

Oh no! I visualise myself on a subtropical island everytime I buy a lottery ticket.

I must be a parrot. Damn it.

i must be a parrot. Damn it.

No child in any of our schools identifies as any animal. Asking friends who work in other settings about this and they all said the same.

So there are children who use a litter tray in a classroom full of people? Who cleans it afterwards?

I thought the litter tray thing was a made up spoof story? I'm alarmed if it's true. Wtf.

13/27 of the children in my class (Primary School, UKS2). We have actually put a ‘litter tray’ in one corner to accommodate, as have 2 others in our school.

Most classes have 3/4 children identifying.

Before the 1990's or thereabouts did anyone actually identify as anything other than human?

That poster didn’t say it was a successful campaign. I can well imagine two slightly dramatic 14 year olds starting an earnest petition for a litter tray. The school is not going to say yes - you can’t leave a tray full of human shit in secondary school toilets.

DS7 occasionally likes to pretend he is a cat. He doesn’t think he is one though, he just likes being petted and told he is cute.

I also remember wanting to be a cat at a similar age - in my case I wanted that level of agility (did a lot of gymnastics). I also did not actually think I was a cat, or want to stop being a child. I just wanted to be able to jump 2 metres in the air and walk along the top of a fence.

What? I’m confused? She is validating it and she needs to teach and parent her child for the real world it’s disgusting! And the fact your child even know’s whatever it is they call it is on you! Literally strange and weird

Not this again. I do not believe this happens, and that furthermore all these goady threads about it are just started so all the transphobes can bang on airing their prejudices.

There was a girl in my DDs class who was a furry for a while in Y8, but now, in Y10, is 'normal' and none of the classmates remember it.

Yes, a child in my child's Y7 class does this. That child is my child.

She doesn't wear a tail to school because I won't get one. But does do the walking on all fours, howling, licking arms, nose-twitching and sniffing etc - and always has done, this was one of the things that was noted on her autism diagnosis long before she or I had ever heard the word therian. She doesn't have internet access herself - she got the terminology from another autistic girl the same age, and it has spread across a group of them like the bubonic plague. I'm really worried about how vulnerable she is to older people for whom it is a sexual fetish. The walking on all fours is actually an occupational therapy exercise we were shown when she was still a pre-schooler and is beneficial to autistic kids with low muscle tone and in need of proprioceptive input. I have taken youtube off the apps on the TV (although she was never interested in it anyway), she won't be getting a smart phone, and I've had a million conversations with her about the difference between pretending and reality. I've asked for an early review of her EHCP to add in to it that while it's fine for her to pretend to be a wolf, it is bad for her SEMH to retreat into a complete fantasy world and staff are not to indulge it. I've spoken to the senco already and she's in agreement.

This means that like the Scottish report a PP referenced my child's EHCP will make reference to therians and her belief that she's a wolf along with outcomes (because that's how EHCPs work), and if the Mail get hold of it I'm sure they'll do the same hatchet job on "documents that we have seen" that insinuates the school are encouraging it.

Still, it's great to know that when other parents see her howling, or licking her arms, or sniffing and twitching her nose - all things she has done when dysregulated since she was tiny - what they are thinking is that
I am to blame (thanks @DaisyChain505)
she should be taken off me (thanks @Tattletwat)
I let her have unsupervised tiktok (thanks @Fluufer)
I support it and I'm fucking mental (thanks @DelilahRay)

And before you protest that that's unfair because you didn't mean ME, you meant the parents who are encouraging it - you can't tell from looking which child has the encouraging parents and which doesn't because their behaviours look identical. I can guarantee if you saw us when DD is dysregulated you would be hoiking your judgey pants up so hard you'd wedgie your tonsils.

I identify as a rich person. I cannot understand why people will not validate my choices and indulge my lifestyle. Just saying.

😂, was just playing tho

There's a few in my child's class, y5. School had an assembly about it. DD finds it all quite amusing but said it doesn't bother her if that what make them happy.

Madness!!!!!

It is I see the cat regularly walking home got ears or mask on and a tail. Also got class mates to call them by another name. 2nd child was not so serious. My DD told me about the litter tray campaign.

Nope not at all. No phone or access to Internet or YouTube. She learns it from school/step sister

Nope, she doesn't have a phone or any social media at all. Only allowed kids youtube in very limited amounts. But she has an older stepsister on her dad's side and also some year 6 girls in year school she's friends with, and I think it's trickled down through them.

That's literally what I just said? I think it's normal to pretend to be an animal but now they have this terminology around it that wasn't there before. I don't encourage it but also not going to stop her playing. If it carries into secondary school then it might become a problem but I can't exactly stop her?