DD is 16 and autistic, she's home educated as she couldn't cope in school but copes pretty well with life in general as long as she has support and is doing fine overall. She's massively into music and live gigs are her thing, she literally lives for them. She's built a decent circle of friends online (all into the same bands) and we've vetted them all, done supervised meet ups etc and we've been happy to facilitate that as she's struggled with friendships via school/local activities.
We've been gradually building her independence with public transport and generally getting herself around for a while now and she's doing great, still texts me a lot for support when she's out but she's managing to navigate it all really well. We're at the stage now where she wants to travel to gigs under her own steam, her friends meet her off the train and they navigate their way to the venue together and then we pick her up to come home at the end of the night.
I think I'm fine with it (
) but it feels so strange! I keep questioning whether I'm being really irresponsible to let her do it which sounds ridiculous as I know she has to be independent sometime and she seems/feels ready but I still keep doubting myself. DH is much more relaxed about this stuff but I worry that he doesn't always see how much support she needs as I've always been main caregiver. I know every kid is different but I suppose I'm just after some reassurance that I'm doing ok with gauging this stuff, am I right to trust my instincts that she's ready?