Children wearing tails?

[ShepherdMoons]

Dd's friend at drama club has recently started wearing a tail.She sometimes wears ears.It looks quite cute but I also find it a bit odd (they are 11).Dd hasn't asked to wear a tail (yet) but wondering if this might be her next question.I appreciate there's a bit of a trend for this at the moment and seems relatively harmless but I do find it odd.AIBU?

Sadly if it escalates it’s a problem, better off discouraging it now.

My oldest children’s age group, had social anxiety
Younger age groups have trans
New one, appears to be furries.

They all like to be “ different”

Christ, people were identifying as therians and furries when I was at secondary school fifteen years ago and now people are calling it a new trend! Most people at the time got it from cartoons, Disney films, Tumblr, or both. There was an awareness about the adult side of the community, but it remained very separate from my year group's fondness for cat ears, emo hair, and gloves that looked like paws. A couple of people would go to fan conventions by age sixteen or seventeen, but no earlier. Parents typically rolled their eyes and let us all get on with it, but admittedly nobody ever wore any of those accessories to school- I doubt anyone would have got away with it, since we'd get a bollocking for not having the right amount of stripes showing on our ties.

As long as you keep an eye on their internet usage to make sure the adult/fetish side stays separate, I really don't see a problem with this. So much children's media even now is based on anthropomorphic animals, it can't be surprising that young people enjoy the style.

No harm? Identifying as a different species?

Same.

Seriously, parents really need to start parenting!

How can someone identify as a cat? Or dog or anything else. They are not a cat and no amount of wearing furry ears makes them one.

My DS has a fox in his class at school, complete with tail 🙄. I honestly don’t know how teachers cope.

Opened this thread thinking it would be about Eton uniforms 🤦‍♀️

Furry bollocks. Teachers actually have to have furry training now if you can believe it. There are kids literally crawling around meowing rather than talking because they identify as a cat. Wish I was kidding.*
Do you have any actual evidence of this happening at all? It appears to be absolute drivel from what I can find online
One if the kids I worked with trued ro ve like this ( I'm not based in a school)
She would put her hands up to her face like they were paws and meow when we talked to her. Mum would allow it.
We just ignored it and didn't engage and as I said in a previous post we would say that cats couldn't come swimming, go the fair.... whatever activity we were doing. She soon changed her mind.
I'm not sure if she's carried it on as her as her case is closed to us now.

Thanks, we do keep an eye on what she does/watches online and we have parental controls in place - we're both tech-savvy and in no way naïve about what goes on online/in forums

As far as DD is concerned, she just loves animals and wearing her tail/ears/paws makes her feel good. There's nothing untoward about what she's doing (she doesn't wear them to school, she doesn't walk on all fours in public)

She would love to go to Furry-Con but it's over 18's only, as I know there is a sexual element to some people's Furry personas (but that's not only what it's about)

And whilst I don't understand her love of all things Furry, I do believe in letting it play out in the hope that she'll grow out of it as she gets older - but if I forbid her from any of it now, she'd just double down wouldn't she

Honestly its insane. A school near us has a child who idenitifies as a dragon and school and parents suppport them. How do you get around the undeniable fact that they are NOT a dragon/fox whatever???

It's April 1st, right?

But discourage it how? If I tell her she can't be a Furry, she'll just want to do it 10000% more - trust me, she's a stubborn madam at the best of times!

She isn't doing anything wrong, she isn't pressuring her peers into being Furrys, she is a lovely, polite and kind young lady who just happens to enjoy wearing a tail

Unless you’re going round telling your child/other children about the sexual fetish side of things then it is innocent. But then I don’t go round telling children why something they enjoy can be seen as sexual.

Have a look at the online communities she's part of. The fact she's only in year 8 and deeply in to this shows you do not pay attention to who she's talking to online.

Why are schools allowing it though? Why isn't the teacher saying 'you're not a fox - get on with your work!'?

Why is everyone so passive with kids now?

That's a lot of 'why's' but fuck me, it blows my mind - a whole generation who is never told no!

You've seen this child, or heard it directly from a teacher working at the school?

Or you heard it from someone who heard it from someone's brother who has a child who's friend goes to the school?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/primary/5068126-any-fluffies-children-identifying-as-cats-at-your-childs-school

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/23/child-identifying-as-cat-controversy-from-a-tiktok-video-to-media-frenzy

Really you wouldn't tell an 11 year old they need to be wary?

How do you think they found it if teenager rather than six year old playing kitty.

Its TikTok, discord, Reddit and all the other places where adults are feeding it to kids as cute before it taking the darker side.

My friends son is in same school and some classes with them.

My child showed me the cats YouTube chanel. I wish it wasn’t real.

There's a kid near me who goes around with a furry tail and ears.

I thought all this stuff was urban legend but no.

Other adults with the fetish find it sexual. The issue is the children are generating this content for consumption by other adults, while thinking it’s for themselves.
A girl walking down the street with a cat tail thinks she is having fun.
A man with this fetish is happy to follow behind, taking photos.

Does she consent to this?

Quite. My DS gets a detention if his shirt isn’t tucked in but the fox gets to wear their tail like it’s some sort of protected characteristic. The world has gone mad. You can’t say anything though, as then you get called a bigot.

My dd is a 22 yr old primary teacher and had to educate her older peers about 'furry fetish' who were mystified by it all!
Of course it needs to be nipped in the bud at school but also teachers need to be aware incase they are accessing inappropriate online content.

Sounds like a trend, a bit like when I was a kid it was dressing like a hippy or a metaller/goth. A bit later on it was skaters. (Even if you didn't skate) Albeit this seems for a slightly younger age group.
I doubt it will last. Of course there's no harm in kids experimenting with clothes as self expression.