Am I so wrong to want to keep dd wrapped in cotton wool for as long as possible???

[Blossomhill]

I can't help it. I know it's wrong but I find it so hard to let go.
I can't explain what I mean except that I probably baby her way too much. She is 9 and has Aspergers.
I honestly cannot ever see me allowing her to go out without me or another adult present. It scares the hell out of me. She has no awareness of danger, roads, strangers etc etc
I want her to go to a specialist school and I think it was that that made me think. My friend said that I can't keep her locked away. I'm not but I want to keep her safe iykwim
Does anyone else feel like this? I can honestly never see me allowing her to get on a bus or go to the shops alone!!!!

Obviously it wouldn't be for a few years if she had sn or was nt but it has got me thinking .....

I know exactly what you mean. Scares the bejesus out of me thinking about letting ds2 do things by himself, and he is only 3!

Well I don't think that you are wrapping her up in cotton wool at all, its as you say you are keeping her safe due to her not having any danger awareness. That said if she does have awareness in a few years then it might be a different story. My brother, who is 12 and has AS, takes himself to school and back but wouldn't have been capable of that a few years ago.

As Supportman says, she may not always stay the same, and things may look different in a few years time. Eventually, you will have to think about how her adult life can be as safe as possible for when you're no longer there, whether that means other care or helping her to learn to overcome her difficulties. But at the moment you are dealing with her life now.

agree with supportman and others. in terms of high school - I am probably biased by my unhappy time at high school - but I think that high school is a lot harder than the adult world - as you are forced into regular contact with people you may not get on or be friends with in a way that doesn't happen so much in the adult world. So I think it's perfectly sensible to want to send your DD to a high school that will be more geared towards her communication/social needs.

Funnily enough I'm not as terrified as I probably ought to be about secondary school - as they are used to having kids with language impairment - as I know the nearest v. nice Hanen course SALT regularly goes in there.

oops only half a message there - one of the nearest bog standard comps (I say bog standard in the sense that it won't be heavily oversubscribed!) -has experience of kids with language problems.