Should I buy my daughter a therian mask and tail?

[pombearmum]

Hi there.

my daughter who is nearly 11 has recently declared that she is a therian. She believes she is half human half cat in fact she’s even got a name for her cat self. Luna. She is so desperate to wear a mask and tail. I really don’t mind but she recently did and was horribly ridiculed by some teenagers. Who shouted at her in the park. She said she didn’t care because you shouldn’t pick on peoples beliefs.

she’s asked me for a new mask and tail for her birthday. I don’t know if I’m being a bad parent buying it for her or a bad parent trying to steer her away from it. Am I opening her up to being massively bullied? She can be whoever she wants to be in front of me and in my opinion there’s far worse things she could do or be then wearing a mask. But the outside world isn’t as supportive.

is anyone else’s child also like mine and how do you deal with the whole not being sure what’s right or wrong thing? Advice would be great please. Sometimes I just don’t know what’s best.

First time I came across the term was about 8 years ago when my friends dd started wearing cat masks and a tail around the house. Shes autistic and heard about it from another autistic friend. Friends daughter is an adult now but still has her masks on display on her room. The works sell blank ones and she used to make some really skilled personalised ones and give them as gifts to her autistic friends.

My own dd is autistic and I see this often pop up in parental support groups. Colouring Outside The Lines on Facebook is groups for parents of autistic girls and it might get you some understanding replies.

God no. It's a dangerous culture and people who take it too seriously are mentally unwell. If she has neurodivergence: Help her find other coping mechanisms.

You might not like to hear it, but getting defensive is going to hurt your family in the long run: you need to hear that this culture is a bad idea for your child.

Lmfao I love this

This

This. I don't work on cyber security but I am very hot on not allowing DC unsupervised internet access and certainly not SM. No human can be a cat. I wouldn't indulge such beliefs. Let her have a pet cat so she knows a pet is very different to becoming an animal. I would never buy a DC such outfits unless it was a 1 off fancy dress. Before long she will want to crawl around and eat off a plate on the floor. She will be massively bullied in secondary school and the thing is those DC she goes to school with now won't forget the girl who thinks she's a cat. It will follow her into adulthood.

Hi there! My DD has no access to social media etc but was wildly keen to cosplay as a wolf age 10, largely due to books / imagination etc. She grew out of it before secondary school.This may not be a big deal in the long term

Many years ago before 'Furries' became a thing, my 4yr old son decided he was a cat called Fluffy. This went on all day, he soon changed his mind when I put down a bowl of cat food for his dinner. These ideas should not be encouraged, and her internet time needs to be monitored.

Yes but for your son it was just a boy of light-hearted role play

Well said

can you compromise and offer to buy her the dress up stuff on the understanding that she is only to wear it at home not anywhere else.