Do you know what a furry is mummy?

Unfortunately lots of kids are using as furries, and lots of schools are allowing it. There was a discussion on my local mum's FB group about a local schools where girls aren't allowed false eyelashes (which I agree with) but are allowed to wear ears and tails (which I don't!). When I said that furries are a fetish lots of mums disagreed with me. I think many have only come across the term in the context of this latest teen fad, and have no idea where it comes from

what is this??

*too scared to google frankly

Oh yeah there's a girl who is a bird therian.

Thankfully DD is incredibly not taken in by any of this shit.

When this came up last year it was dismissed by the Association of School Leaders and countless others as "nothing to see here", not happening, fake news.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12213579/How-schools-allowing-kids-identify-cats-horses-dinosaurs.html

Children & young people are really being failed in some schools of this is allowed to happen.

There seems to be a thing called 'therian' too

Yet girls can't wear trousers, have to have the correct socks and shoes are monitored as if in the military.

Bonkers.

DS learned about furries on TikTok. He was a similar age at the time.

What. The. Actual.

When did we stop with any boundaries at all? This links to the Abigail Shrier thread here. The kids are really not alright (and I don't blame the kids).

Same at my DS's secondary school. There is one in year 8 who insists she is a cat and only meows, she apparently wears cat ears and a tail to school and the school don't seem to bat an eyelid. Her request for a litter box was denied though. There's one who thinks she's a dog in year 10 as well.

A couple of schools near me have this. I have heard there’s a gang of foxes who wear ears and tails and howl in lessons but don’t get punished.

Nope. They technically have a uniform but it isn't enforced in any way whatsoever.

Fucking hell. 😱

There are a lot of furries on Roblox - could that be the original source.

As the article says 'buckle up' for this one.

https://www.avclub.com/the-insane-story-of-a-furry-convention-undone-by-its-de-1798264086

One girl wears ears and a tail to school and makes cat gestures and sounds.

And they don't send her home, and tell her to put some proper clothes on?

Loads of kids at my DD's high school are 'furries' apparently and go about in animal onesies. One girl wears ears and a tail to school and makes cat gestures and sounds.

The world is utterly batshit.

I would check the content of their PHSE lessons if I was you - you would not believe the shit kids are being taught is absolutely ok and nothing to see here. Thread below on some schools guidance from last year.

Whatever people may tell you - furries are fetishists and some of them abuse animals. Shit like the guidance below minimises all of that.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/safer-schools-issues-guidance-on-furries-in-school

I was told recently it is a big thing - furries at school - by someone who has kids at school. Apparently on mufti days, they come in furry costumes?! My own are young adult and know what furries really mean! I was astonished (and I'm in a rural area - a very long way from W London). Is it a Tiktok thing? I cannot think of another vector.

Oh God 🫥

How’d your 10yo come to hear of it? Because furries are noted to have some very unsavoury clusters of paraphilia (including the most obvious, yes) so I’d be genuinely worried about what [an older sibling of] one of their friends is doing online that your child’s come home asking.

Am not sure at all as to how you should approach that discussion (or rather, cannot sufficiently arrange thoughts to communicate helpfully) but am sure someone will be along to help soon. Much sympathy 💐

My DD came home with this the other day, she’s 10 too - not West London are you? I told her that some adults do this in a romantic way and it’s not a word to bandy around because it doesn’t mean what she thinks it means. She just said ok and left it there. I probably said it wasn’t most adults and was unusual but that the word was dodgy.