Whilst she can struggle socially, my 6 year old daughter loves exploring and taking risks without realising the potential dangers. For example, she can’t swim (currently taking lessons, she’s in stage 3) but went on the rapids water slide that ended in very deep water before I could stop her. Luckily she had a floating jacket thing on and I went down after her so she was fine. Another example, she LOVES to climb; rocks, trees, anything. She’s actually very good but she can go dangerously high if I haven’t told her to stop or come down.
I love that she’s confident in her abilities, especially as she can struggle with her confidence in social situations, and I don’t want to stifle her or pass on my anxieties. It doesn’t help that when I’m scared or anxious it can come out as anger (shouting at her to stop/get down etc). But I’m worried she will put herself in a dangerous situation. How do I get her to be more aware without impacting her confidence?
Sidenote, she is always supervised when we’re out but I also have twin 5 year olds so if I take all of them out by myself (which I often do) it can be hard to watch all 3 of them at the same time all the time. Also, she is a very well behaved girl and isn’t being naughty, she will always listen if I say no, albeit moan a little
EDIT: thank you all for sharing your experiences and for the advice ♥️ Going forward I’ll try to calm tf out as I’d feared it was my issue (panic, anxiety) more so than hers. I will also approach risk from an educational standpoint, teaching her exactly how to minimise danger whilst letting her do her thing! In regards to ADHD as some have suggested, it is something I’ve considered as both me and her dad are ND (me autism, him ADHD). I hadn’t previously linked it to her risk taking but it would fit. Will looked to get a diagnose at done point.