Would you buy an eight-year-old a coat with real fur trim?

[JustPearlQuail]

My son, who’s 8, has his heart set on a Canada Goose coat with the real fur trim that we found for a good price on ebay for his birthday because all his friends have them and he thinks it’s the coolest thing .. I get the practicality, they’re warm and tough, but I’m really uneasy about the idea of him wearing real fur, especially coyote fur, which I’ve heard can involve pretty cruel trapping methods....

I don’t want to shut him down completely and make it a big fight, but I also don’t want to support something that feels wrong. Has anyone here let their child wear real fur? How did you explain it to them, or how did you steer them toward a faux option without it becoming a battle? He said the faux option looks terrible, which I do agree! Will it survive playground life without getting stolen?

Yes they do. Plus just because an adult has something, that doesn't mean it's appropriate for a child. I don't eat meat anyway, but even I can see that there can be ethical differences within the meat/farming industry.

Absolutely not

What kind of school does your son go to? Baffling how 8 year olds have skipped lower/mid brands and gone straight to CG!

If your son ever goes out alone, you need to be wary of the coat making him a target for mugging.

« To the people saying I should show him a video on how its made, won't that just traumatize him rather than solve any problem?? »

Well, quite probably it would do both - traumatise and solve the problem.

However, I would hope that my 8yr-old boy would be kind and aware enough to understand an abridged explanation of quite how cruel fur is. Then nobody needs to traumatise a child.

This. 100%
Please don't.

What bunch of 8 year olds all have Canada goose coats, Jesus buy him a bike!

If you have brought your son up to be begging for designer coats at age 8 you're doing something very wrong.

No I wouldn't, but I would try to use it as a learning opportunity for your DS. Tell him why you said no, and what happens to animals raised for fur and explain why real fur is not OK. I would not go as far as others have suggested and show him barbaric you tube videos. He's too young for that.

Canada Goose no longer use real fur and havn't done so since the end of 2022, however many shops are still selling old stock.

Unless you live somewhere arctic then I wouldn't buy Canada Goose for a child that hasn;t stopped growing. I've looked at them for my husband (he preferred the fit of Moncler but I preferred the quality of CG) and they are great but is a child going to look after it.

I wouldn’t for all the reasons listed but I’ve also heard of people being mugged for Canada goose jackets and wouldn’t want to risk subjecting my child to that experience for the sake of the jacket

I find buying an 8 year old a Canada Goose coat equally as ridiculous. EBay or not.

Kids of that age shouldn't be hankering after expensive status symbols that even adults struggle to afford. If they are, they should be consciously trained away from it, because consumerism and following trends will steal your bank balance and your ability to think for yourself and to develop likes, dislikes and aesthetic preferences that are truly yours. We all know this! The pleasure that comes from impressing people with status is always a compromised kind of pleasure and fades so you need to keep chasing it. It sabotages your independence of thought and is basically a self-inflicted subservience to others. He can either be allowed to sleepwalk into that way of relating to the world or he can be steered away from it with some tough love. (And is he really the one who gets to decide whether there will be a 'big fight' about it?)

I wouldn't want my child to be a walking advertisement for this ludicrously overhyped company. Plus considering our mild winters and how fast kids grow, isn't he only going to get a couple of weeks' use out of it total?

Perhaps find him a nice YouTube video of a coyote having its leg broken in a trap and then being bludgeoned to death the next morning. See if he still want one then.

No. And I would hope that by the time any child of mine was old enough to wear such a garment they wouldn’t actually want to.
It is not okay.

Fair comment!

No.

Of course not. Because of the fur. Because of the feathers. Because of the obscene cost. And because we only ever have about a week a year cold enough to wear it.

"I've had a think about it and I wont be getting you that coat, I dont morally (great opportunity for a chat about what this means!) agree with buying fur products as the fur industry hurts animals (brief description) and i dont want to use the money i earn to support it. When you are older, you can choose to spend your money on things like this if thats what you decide, but this is important to me so I wont be buying it"

And if he complains, just repeat "We can look at alternatives"
Remember: no child has ever been irreversibly traumatised or hates their mother for life over not getting a coat they want. You wont die from him being grumpy with you.

No, and i’d be looking at my parenting if my 8yr old was asking for such expensive stuff. What an absolute waste of money.

It's second hand presumably, as it was on eBay?

I think second hand fur is ethical. I'd have less of a problem with that than a new one.

Are you in the UK, @JustPearlQuail .
I can't imagine an 8 y.o. asking for a Canada Goose coat with the real fur trim when it's the May half term and it's a heatwave.

No... get him a fake.

1. Not ALL his friends have them and those who do may have fakes.

1. Unless you live in the Scottish Highlands and he walks 4 miles to school every day, he doesn't need a coat of this specification.

1. Encouraging this kind of behaviour (a big fight if he doesn't get his own way?) is ridiculous.

Buy him practical clothing. Warm, waterproof and washable. If it gets lost, stolen or damaged nobody needs to be too upset. Have a chat about how 'real fur' is sourced.

Could you link to said coat? I don’t see any on the CG website that have a fur trim?

Are people seriously buying their 8 year anniversary olds jackets of this expense because “they want one”!

Dear god!