Dogpatch Press

UPDATE: The person running programming has had to drop out. Anyone interested in helping take their place should contact the con.

Who brings kids to a furry con? Check out Furscience.com: Resources for parents, or Moms of Furries. Vice has a report: How the Furry Community Became a Safe Space for Youth. Sometimes kids bring their parents, and sometimes furries have their own kids. Of course they do, this fandom started in the late 1970’s. Multiple generations is what makes it grow.

BunBun, a mom and furry near San Francisco, proposed kid-friendly programming to Further Confusion in January. She said the board really wants to make it happen. She’s now working to make special events for kids. There’s a schedule including guided story writing/mad libs (maybe with a writer guest?) and having the kids design a space ship, matching the sci-fi theme of the con.

It will be the best time ever for them. You can help!

• WANTED: STAFF. Bunbun needs people willing to volunteer.
• WANTED: ART SUPPLIES. Including hands-on craft or sewing supplies, like scrap fur, needles and thread to help them start furry costuming of their own.
• Is anyone willing to put on a fun panel for kids, or be a DJ for kid friendly music?

Contact the con if you want to help make it happen.

On furry groups (including Greymuzzles) I asked for suggestions. Jake Johnson suggested writing and designing their first fursona. Artslave said that interacting with animals from the charity could be a hit, but “make sure to note that this is not an event for adults to drop their kids off at” — it’s for parents to do with them. Maelstrom Eyre said a project the kids can bring home with them, like ears or a simple tail (making a fursuit could be a tall order, but a tail could be just what the doctor ordered.) Grubbs Grizzly wanted a list of cons with programs for tiny furs and what they are. And Sylvan writes:

Suggestions, as a con-runner for over 20 years, would always start with a craft/workshop room. In that room, you schedule craft events such as making puppets, learning to write, learning to draw, putting together models, and just non-guided craft projects that anyone can indulge in at any time with pencils, pens, crayons, markers, scissors, hole-punches, yarn, cardboard, crepe paper, glitter, and thousands of other craft items. CONvergence, in Minnesota, has been doing that for years and always makes it a point to schedule things that kids can do with other kids as well as things that kids can do with their parents.

NO! The Chuck E. Cheese band is no more. Time to make the magic ourselves. (Pic: Mark Sullivan/WireImage)

This reminds me… when I was 10 or so, I got to go to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. It had the animatronic band on stage, but underneath the stage, there was a sort of child-sized maze. Does anyone else remember this? I didn’t dream a portal to a magical netherworld did I?

I remember it had a little tunnel door, and you could crawl around a bunch of bends that were nice and carpeted, and hide out or make mischief. It was probably a terrible idea if the fire alarm went off or a kid barfed pizza chunks, since I don’t know how they could send a full-sized adult in to help! It was probably super gross under there, something they wouldn’t allow these days, and the most fun thing ever.

Oh yeah, there was also the big dancing mouse, but he’s actually more fun to me as a grown up. The mouse tunnels were my favorite part of the party — can someone make a full-sized version? Until that happens, help Bunbun make something that special for the kids who are at Further Confusion with their parents, so not just the grown ups get to have a magical convention.