Parents and family

[Lady Serpent]

A question came into my mind this morning.. how many of you have parents or family members who know about your furriness?  Are they OK with it, or do they think it's strange?


Personally, my immediate family knows about me being a 'furry', although I'm not quite sure they know what that entails.  I've explained that it's a group of people who enjoy drawing, writing about, or otherwise relating to anthropopmorphic animals, and that a lot of people also make or enjoy wearing cosutmes.  (As I do, which is a pretty big reason why I wanted to explain it to them while I was living at home.  Spending six hours a day on the weekends taking over the living room while building fursuits kind of demanded an explanation.)  I did try to offer the non-sexual explanation, though, trying to point out that the media generally thinks 'furry' is all about sex, but that's not what most of the fandom is about, and that although there are a few wierdos (as there are in all groups), there are far more friendly, excellent people who just have a fondness for their chosen animal(s).

My dad seems fine with it, and my brothers don't really 'get' it, but they know I'm a wierd one anyways and they accept it; they think the fact that I can do 'art and stuff' is pretty cool.  My mom is a hater of anything out-of-the-ordinary, so we've had one or two skiffs about it; she doesn't think I should be spending time hanging out with 'those wierd furries' and she thinks some of my darker art is a telltale sign that I'll become an axe murderer one day, but in general I think she's all right with the 'finer' points of furry, like the 'friendly-looking' art and the fact that the costumes are pretty cool.  She doesn't get why I like the 'scary-looking' animals moreso than the cute fuzzy ones, but I think overall she's come to grips with the fact that I'm going to be 'wierd' regardless of what she tries to do, so she mostly just tries to get along with me.  (With the occasional sideways comment thrown in for good measure.)

What about you?  Does your family 'accept' or not care that you're a fur, or do they think it's wierd?  How did you approach the subject?

Cheers;
-Lady Serpent

[alleycat009]

My parents both passed away before they ever got to know anything about Furry.

One of my sisters knows what I've told her, and she's met a couple furry friends, who are no longer friends because of the crap they caused, and the example they have set.  It's quite saddening, because now she thinks that furries are lazy bums that ride off of disability, and live with their heads in an alternate reality.

Beyond that, the rest of my family only knows what they've read on my Livejournal, which has been under lock for a couple years, only now being open to the public eye again... (now that I'm mature enough to be able to post things that don't peeve everyone off around me. )

[slickdelray]

I told my parents that I was a fur mainly so I would be able to go to fur meets and cons without having to lie to them about where I was going. They are OK with it, though not entirely comfortable with it. I probably didn't do a good job about describing it, and, of course, they look it up in the Internet (cringes). They don't really trust people in fursuits now. But, they tolerate it (as well as tease me about it). I don't usually bring it up around them when I can, though.

[wolffers]

for me, my rents know as i have plushs, pictures, tails and tats of animals. for the most part they are ok with it. my cousin and his wife for whatever reason are totally against fur's(despite the fact that the wife's twin is a fur). my sis, well i always been upfront with her and she's ok with it.

[Josiah Tobin]

All of my immediate family knows, no issues there really. Well, my dad thinks it's a little odd, but he seems to have (in some ways) resigned himself to the belief that he'll never understand some things because he's of a previous generation. That's the impression I get, anyway.

My brother is fine with it, although I think he's still kind of leery about a lot of the furs out there (drama etc.)-- he came to the first FurBQ back in 2006 to check it out, though. Pretty nifty.

My mother, being the almost bafflingly accepting person she is, didn't even know why I'd think she would consider it odd.

~Josiah

[blue-vulpine]

Most of my family knows, or at least I assume so. My facebook pretty much has all the telltale signs of a furry. ^^;

I tried to tell my mom when I first started up in the furry goodness, but it was at a rather strange and awkward time, and she was kinda "out of it". So she would usually just smile and nod and give one or two word responses to whatever you said to her. So I kinda gave up explaining it to her.
She doesn't dislike my friends for being different or strange, she just doesn't like her son to be different I guess... When we first met Gnosis, I had dyed my hair blue for the first time, and when I went to show it to my parents, my mom took me aside and started crying because she thought Gnosis had turned me gay. So thats just one example. :/

My Brother probably knows the most about furries in my family, and all his knowledge was gathered from A thousand ways to die, CSI and Entourage. We never have actually talked about it, and I haven't told him, but I'm sure he knows. He commonly reffers to my friends as my furry friends. He is not very familear with the internet, unless its Facebook or Nexopia, so he doesn't know things about memes or 4chan or longcats, so his info on furries is rather limited. :/

When it comes down to it, I think my grandmother was the only one who wanted to know about me, and what was really going on in my life. My parents never took an interest when I started writing or drawing. Where as my grandmother almost demanded to see my work. I really liked the fact that she took an interest in what I made.

We would often discuss things over games of scrabble and tea. The furry topic had come up, and her reaction was much better then I thought it would be. She wanted to know more about it, and although she may not have understood what it was in its entirety, she understood that it made me happy, and thats all she needed. :3

My family, like many others is dis-functional, and although we can annoy each other in our own special ways, I love em'. :3

-TJ

[Scavello]

Like many things in my life, my parents have no idea that I am a furry, or hide it really well. The reason I haven't told them is not because how I fear they will react, they are both very accepting and rational people, it's just never come up, nor have I felt a need to tell them. Is it going to to hurt them knowing or not knowing? No, I don't see why it would. My mom is a pretty big CSI fan, so if I do ever tell her, or get asked about it I know that is going to come up As for my brother, I don't see him very often, nor do I speak with him very much, so I am pretty sure he doesn't know.

[Brasou]

Hmmm. Well I'm not sure who, but someone(Either my sister, or my mom) has found an adult comic I had hidden away.  I came home one day from school and it was just chilling on my bed wide open. Normally I kept it "hidden"(More like...out of sight, didn't really hide it didn't think anyone would look around my stuff :S)

Needless to say I avoided both my mom and my sister for the next few weeks, and I also destroyed of the evidence Kinda mad cause it was my first furry comic. And no one ever brought it up so I don't know who found it....  I think it was my sister because I don't think my mom would leave it out, She would either talk to me about it...or put it back.  But that was like...5 years ago?  So maybe they just amused it was the only porn I could find haha.   

[bloodredruby]

Haha Brasou, they found your naughty drawer? XD

As for me, my brother knows that I'm a furry, and he doesn't really care. My parents know that I'm making a costume, and have some friends that have costumes, but the whole "furry thing" is out of their grasp at this point.

[Wyrd-Hotd]

As for me, i have kept it a complete secrete... Although there are a few signs that if one were looking one would find, but thats because overall i know that no-one will know unless i want them to know.  Main reason being is my parents have seen CSI and 1000 Ways to die, and i dont want to have to deal with that in conversation, i know they are extremely accepting, but at the same time they are VERY internet savvy and i know they would look into it and.. well ya XD So its a well hidden thing with me... Unless like i said before, you knew what to look for, other then my BLATANTLY furry desktop LOL

[Shnell]

My family knows and they think it's good I'm in a set interest group like this hahaha. They think furries are hilarious, but in a good-humoured way. They have no problem with it. (They don't know about the weird side of the fandom though- I spared those details of course haha.)

[alleycat009]

There's nothing wrong with weird. Normal on the other paw is boring and dull.

[Shnell]

Well, the whole concept in general is a bit odd LOL, but I mean like, the sexual stuff and weird fetishes. :I obviously they don't need to know that.

[sNicker]

Well, the whole concept in general is a bit odd LOL, but I mean like, the sexual stuff and weird fetishes. :I obviously they don't need to know that.

LOL /agreed. I haven't told my family, I'm kinda waiting till I get a bit more into it (fairly new to this). They know I'm a goofy guy and such, but they literally don't know anything about 'me'. I like to have fun, I like to be extremely silly, I LIKE FURRY lol. It wasn't the sexual/fetish thing that drove me to look into it, it was the art and other people who are more like 'me'. I can't even describe me its so complicated lol. The surface is easily summed as nice, easygoing person.

I told my best friend about me getting into furry in Disneyworld. Me and him are like brothers. I've known him since elementary school, been friends forever. So I can read him like a book. We were looking at gifts for his girlfriend in this crystal shop, he told me he'd meet me at so-and-so. What I heard was "I'm gonna look at expensive gifts for my gf and I don't want you to see how much." (Long complicated story. Short version: I don't agree totally about him dating/getting expensive gifts for gf (for reasons, very long story)). Oh and I asked him when i met him up later and said what I thought and was like "Yeah...".

So when I told him about the furry thing, I tried to put it on light. "I'm kinda getting into the furry thing, ya know, looking at art, hoping to meet to new people. I joined a site, read a few comics, and thats why Ive been drawing animals and stuff lately (long flights+boredom=doodles). He said "Oh, ya that sounds cool. Ya Im cool with that man." and basically dropped it there. So he accepts what Im doing, but is kinda weirded out by it. He thought right away it was sexual, I was like "If I had a gf, I would be happy. If she was into furry, id be really happy, but its not a necessity.".

So I won't be telling my parents anytime soon, and me and my friend talked about his gf, my new furry exploration, and had a good time in Disney. Glad to be back
/endrant.

[kona]

My brother is fine with it, although I think he's still kind of leery about a lot of the furs out there (drama etc.)-- he came to the first FurBQ back in 2006 to check it out, though. Pretty nifty.

~Josiah

Wow... until just now, I had forgotten that your brother came with us! o.o


As for me... my mom knows... I don't think she gets it.  My sister knows, and the first thing she thought of was CSI.  I didn't tell her too much more, but I agreed that it was kind of like that.

I'm pretty sure Eclipse's parents know... but I don't think we've ever given them any details.  I remember telling one of his gramas though.. that was interesting.  She's scared of the internet and when we mentioned that a lot of the stuff we do (relating to furryness) is on the internet she got worried, but otherwise she's pretty ok with it.

[ShadowKitten]

me being the technology crazy i am, i just send whoever asks about it (including my mother) to "WIKI IT"

the wikipedia for Furry Fandom is currently quite well done and explains all the aspects of the fandom imo, while showing it isn't all about yiffy crazed people in fursuits like CSI claims it was XD

i honestly don't give a flying crud about who knows or what they think of me because of it, i am who i am,people's beliefs and ideals usually can't be permanantly changed, so i just let them be and simply not give a damn.

[Drewdle]

No one in my family knows. My parents don't have a clue; my younger brother (who also now lives on his own) might have an idea, as he's seen me with my collar. I don't really think it's important that they know.

[sNicker]

me being the technology crazy i am, i just send whoever asks about it (including my mother) to "WIKI IT"

the wikipedia for Furry Fandom is currently quite well done and explains all the aspects of the fandom imo, while showing it isn't all about yiffy crazed people in fursuits like CSI claims it was XD

i honestly don't give a flying crud about who knows or what they think of me because of it, i am who i am,people's beliefs and ideals usually can't be permanantly changed, so i just let them be and simply not give a damn.

Dear god, my parents are the opposite of tech savvy. I think they would get lost if I directed them towards Wiki to search for anything lol.

Ya I read the wiki article on furries and think it did an awesome job portraying what I felt furry meant (you know, with all my extensive knowledge /endsarcasm).

And thats awesome you don't care what others think. Thats how I feel towards strangers, but I honestly think my family would be really freaked out by it (Hard working, moralist dad. Relgious mom). I think I could tell my sister some day, she seems more "with the times" than my parents. She'd understand its a part of who I am, parents think it would be F%#ked up, that I rotted my brain from THE INTERNET *duh duh DUHHHHH!*.

[Rain]

None of their business. They're lucky that I came out to them.

[Runemist]

My mom knows, but that's kind of a vague statement when it comes to her. I could have said "Being furry means I like to hang out with big, spaceship-faring aliens" and she'd be none the wiser. I explained it as best I could, and she seemed to understand, and accept that I know what I'm doing.
Otherwise, no one else knows, or would understand what it was if I told them, much like my mom.