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

[wotnofurries]

inspired by the wearing a tail to school thread, I thought I'd see just how common or otherwise the whole furry/litter tray/identify as an animal thing really is.

Unreasonable = Yes, a child in my child's class does this.
Not Unreasonable = Don't be silly, never come across one in my life.

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.

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.

It's really not.

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.

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.

There was a girl at my secondary school that seemed to think she was a cat. She would hiss, make scratching movements at people and meow. Everyone saw it for what it was - bloody weird. No one copied the behaviour thankfully. I'm pretty sure the girl had mental health issues based on other behaviours and I do still wonder what happened to her.

A close friend’s dp came out as a cat about 2018 😂 She dumped him immediately. He was invited to some art dinner I was at, and was dabbing at his “whiskers”, I asked him if invisible whiskers needed cleaning and was told I’m homophobic 🤣🤣🤣, he’s a straight white man 🤣🤣🤣

But serious question, do faith schools indulge this? Church of England/Catholic schools? Please say no!

I don’t think anyone is judging young children for indulging in imaginative play. They’re judging the adults who are treating imaginative play as if it’s a sign of something ‘real’ that must be accommodated in all areas of life. Surely you can see this?

I have had the same thoughts.

Unfortunately this is all part of the aftermath from 14 years of Tory government policy. These are the unintended consequences of the austerity programme.

Well actually a fair few people directly responded to my comment about my 7 year old being very clearly judgemental about my parenting so....

I am not going round calling her a therian, this is what she calls herself 🤣
But it is harmless at this age.

But no one is judging a child for playing, that’s what I’m saying,

But judging an adult for playing into this nonsense is, as far as I can see, perfectly fair.

Of course you will feel defensive if posters are suggesting you give your child unlimited internet access and you’re quite right to correct them on that!

But the thing is, if your young child pretends to be an animal, it really doesn’t need any substantial response from you; it’s just another game, surely? I think pp are responding to the idea that you have to ‘have a conversation about it’ or treat it as if it’s anything other than kids playing pretend. That’s where these bonkers ideas about ‘therians’ or whatever gain traction - when adults start engaging with them.

I can't exactly stop her when it's what they all say at school. It's not an offensive word and isn't hurting anyone?
I don't call it her but I don't tell them to stop when they're playing.
I don't get why people are so offended by it especially when it's younger kids

Oh absolutely, and that's what i do, just let her get on with it. We don't have a conversation about it I mainly just ignore it or treat like any other game

Cats and foxes don't go to school: education is compulsory for children. These kids go to school ergo they are human children NOT any kind of animal and must follow the rules about behaviour and the dress code - and use the toilets, not demand litter trays (that is gross for everyone: are you seriously trying to tell me that they shit in cat litter?) Maybe the parents could try that at home : a litter tray in the garage : if you're a cat that's where you have to "go". Might bring home the difference between imaginary play and "identifying as".
Because "identifying as" means 100% of the time, not just when it suits you. Cats have fur, not clothes....... are they going to run around naked? I don't think so.. Try feeding them cat food, too: they don't want it? Then they are just "playing at" being a cat rather than identifying as one.

Personally I don't allow my children do whatever they want because they're just children. Our job as parents is to guide and protect them. Words have meanings, "identifying" as a "therian" isn't just playing. It isn't the same as just pretending to be a cat occassionally. We are allowed to say no to our children.

Our job as parents is to bring up independent adults who can operate in real life.

Anyone who turned up at work identifying as anything other than they are will not be taken seriously.

Apart from in Academia of course

With kids, we need to foster their imagination, not their delusions.

Try feeding them whiskas for their dinner. That would reinforce the utter nonsense of this.

I think we will just have to disagree here. She gets told no all the time for other things but personally this doesn't bother me.

If she's still pretending to be a cat in her teens it will be a different story and I will have to address it but we are a long way off that yet and i know she will likely grow out of it. Like she has her other fads.

Because younger kids become older kids. There was a case in Ireland where teenage kids started doing this, even demanding a litter tray un the bathroom, they were threatened with explosion and funny enough it stopped straight away!! Thankfully the school didn't indulge it