Any "fluffies" (children identifying as cats) at your child's school?

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I had no idea this was a thing until this week. Parents are fully supportive. Is this happening across the UK? Apparently they're being provided with a litter tray in a private room. I thought being allowed to wear ears and a tail was going beyond reasonable but the litter tray seems completely unhygienic and a step too far in role playing how they feel about their identity.

So you haven't even seen the child yourself, but you have apparently heard of a child dressed as a cat and from that you now apparently "know" this:

Parents are fully supportive. Is this happening across the UK? Apparently they're being provided with a litter tray in a private room.

That's a huge fucking leap, you should consider taking up parkour

Yes my friend teaches in a secondary school where it’s happening. 2 children from the same family. They influenced another child to do it too. That child since has severe mental health issues. It’s a mess.

I don’t have photos, or articles I just know it’s real.

My kid wears an animal mask to school everyday and almost everytime we leave the house (even if she’s just going to be in the car). She doesn’t ‘identify’ as an animal but she is autistic and being able to be behind a mask means she is able to spend some time outside in the world and not feel exposed. Otherwise she wouldn’t ever leave the house.

I’m sure if someone’s grandparent saw her arriving at school in her mask every day (and a tail last week!) they could assume she’s a ‘furry’ and shitting in a litter box. Wouldn’t make it true though.

Wearing a cat ear accessory doesn't mean they identify as a cat. I used to wear a hairband with zebra-striped fur as a kid but didn't identify as a zebra! I tried googling identifying as a cat in the NHS and came up with absolutely nothing, however this article is quite interesting. Obviously for some kids they will want to be a cat because they think it's trendy or rebelling against societal norms but for others identifying with/as animals is a trauma response

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/06/22/i-identified-as-a-cat-as-a-child/

i think the grandparent read a Sun article, saw some online stuff then saw a kid with ears on and somehow their mind jumped to litter boxes.

here’s loads more information on this urban myth.

https://theconversation.com/what-are-furries-debunking-myths-about-kids-identifying-as-animals-and-litter-boxes-in-schools-193908

https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2023-04-26/cat-litter-trays-in-schools-the-purrplexing-urban-myth-that-wont-go-away

Logically it surely wouldn't make sense as the schools wouldn't allow it. If you believe you are a cat then there is no reason for you to be in school, cats don't take part in formal education.

It's a complete myth. And the origin of it is horrifying. It started because some primary schools in the US do keep bags of cat litter in cupboards.

Because during school shootings, small children often wet themselves in fear and the litter is used to soak up messes.

Often a bucket of litter is left in a cupboard as a make shift toilet for during school shootings drills and practice lockdowns as small children can't hold it in for long and they can't leave the classrooms during drills as it might be real

Some people took the existence of the litter, divorced it from context and made it about the trans panic to cover up the more horrific implications that kids are being shot at on a daily basis and preparing for it is now a part of daily school life for them.

No. No children identifying as Fluffies at DS2's primary and No Furries or Therians at DS1"s secondary.

Even aside from the bonkers "all the parents are fine with it" in the West Midlands where historically "all the parents are fine and it's all quiet" is not exactly the default stance

Do you really think all the teachers would be "fine" with cleaning out these mythical litter boxes when they havent got the time or energy to do all the actual demands of their teaching jobs given how hard teaching is currently?

Or that schools, in a recruitment and retention crisis would risk more strikes or teachers leaving because they wouldn't be willing to deal with this?

It doesn't take a lot of critical thinking to know that you wouldn't get a school where all the parents and all the teachers would agree on this and it would just go through without someone kicking up a fuss and there being a newspaper article or some Facebook posts about it.

You can't even skip picking up your dog shit without people on the local Facebook page ranting about it (understandably). Yet this you believe without seeing a single murmer against it other than the one random grandparent?

So your proof is the word of a friend, who likes to gossip about children with mental health problems?

What a crock of shit.

Half truths and full lies.

I’ve seen kids- usually teenage girls- walking round with ears and tails. I fucking despair. It’s not the same as gender dysphoria, which I have all the time for. Identifying as a cat is just complete and utter batshit crazy batshittery, and the fact that adults support this……….!! 🤯

Aah well our school is so far up its own backside that it believes in pandering to children, admittedly it's secondary not primary but it very much believes in supporting children and if that means supporting them in believing that they are a dog or cat or anything else then they'll do that. A supported child is a happy child who is in a better place to learn. Yes it is a failing school in special measures. And yes most of the kids are probably taking the mickey

They're probably just dressing up for a bit of fun! Sometimes my daughter likes to pretend to be a cat. She even likes to drink milk out of a saucer and for us to call her kitty. She knows that she is not a cat and that she is a girl. She is just playing! Children have big imaginations!

When I was a teenager studded dog collar chokers where in fashion and we all wore them

We didn't think we were dogs though

When I was in school we all dressed up with pony ears because we were horse obsessed

Didn't mean we thought we were horses though

Yes there may be an issue with a few children. But the vast majority of them are either exercising their imaginations through play or following fashions. And if your childhood isn't the place for imaginative play or following stupid fashions that you will look back on and roll your eyes at then that is when I will despair.

Better some cat ears than 10 year olds on tik tok with thousands of people (and a worrying amount of adult men) following them doing their sephora makeup routine

Secondary but yes there is a wolf. It's not a hoax. There's also a girl who identifies as a boy who can't attend the boys version of the school.

Just echoing pp.
It's not true.

You have a child in your secondary school who identifies as a wolf?.

Two choices here for that;

1. Person is thick as shit and believed it, so made up the seeing children to make them not seem so bloody stupid
2. Person is thick as shit and didn't realise it was World Book Day

@NeverDropYourMooncup - yes, it'll be one of those two options.

There is literally another identical thread in this.

There are ongoing cases within the NHS of staff wanting to identify as cats whilst on shift (and various internal procedures as it ties HR and Equality Diversity and Inclusion reps up in knots) but I had never heard of this within childcare before.

Source please.

I can't seem to find it, could you link please or tell me where it is? Thanks

In a nutshell.

Hello, not sure if this will work but it's in feminism.

Furries in schools

Furries in schools www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/5065152-furries-in-schools