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[quote=Anonymous]I honestly think parents are contributing to kid’s anxiety more than anything else. This was hard for us because our oldest has profound intellectual disability and was not able to be given any freedom (she is a ninth month old cognitively at age 15). But, our youngest is completely neurotypical. Here are some things we did.

She made scrambled eggs (supervised) starting at age 4 (my husband was horrified I let her do this). She was baking fairly independently (other than taking things in and out of the oven by 8). Around age 10, she took stuff in and out of the oven. By age 11, she could make pasta for herself. At age 12, she did it when my husband and I were out of the house and decided to use a glass pot and broke it. She called me, and I talked her through what to do to clean it up carefully. We talked later about a glass pot not being a good choice.

She could walk a few blocks and cross two streets to get to her friend’s house in a super safe neighborhood with not much traffic by age 9. The other mom would text me she had arrived. By age 11, she could walk 10 minutes on the beach to the pier near our beach house with friends and go to the coffee and bagel place. She liked to get her friends up early enough to watch the sunrise on her walk. I would track her (I don’t track her at age 13 and now she can go by herself).

This wasn’t on purpose, but at age 12, she was alone with her older sister keeping an eye on her and her sister had a seizure (which had never happened before). She texted and told me to come home asap something was wrong. I called her and she described what was going on. My husband was calling 911 as we drove back. When we got there, she has independently decided to put a big roll of paper towels under her sister’s head to protect her head from the floor and mop up all the drool. Don’t get me wrong, she was super upset once we got home and the paramedics were there. And I would never, ever have wanted this for her. But, she really showed she could be level headed and a problem solver in a crisis. She didn’t fall apart until others were there to take over. She still watches her sister from time to time (who has not had a seizure again).[/quote]

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