Do you worry about your child wandering?

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  • Gina Hayes - 13 years ago

    Our beautiful little girl has both Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder. She seems to remember places after being there only once. She's very mobile, quiet and quick and she somehow managed to slip out unnoticed, the first time, when she was four years old. As we have secured the back yard with six foot fence and kept child proof covers on exterior door handles, we'd managed to avoid this scare until this point. To this day I'm not entirely sure how she slipped out but it was absolutely terrifying for me. Thankfully she'd gone to a familiar place, near-by, where there was a responsible adult who knew our family and knew she should not be out alone. The second time she slipped out was when someone failed to secure the back gate. Once again, thankfully, she hadn't gone too far as she got sidetracked by a neighbors basketball and net. She is now seven years old. The most recent event was a couple weeks ago when I forgot to flip the hotel lock on the door that leads to the garage; my having gone in and out several times working on a remodel project. Apparently she'd finished her snack and on her way to her room to play got sidetracked by the washer and dryer as she is fascinated by beeps of the electronic panels on this newer set. I can only conclude this led to testing the door handle to find this time it opened. From there she hit the garage door opener and she was "free". By the grace of God the timing was such that during the few minutes she was out, it was a short enough amount of time that she wasn't yet bored with the front yard and her dad had just rounded the corner on his commute home. The garage door opener has now been raised two feet higher. We bought this house when our little girl was a newborn baby. Long story short I knew nothing of this town including that it is the smallest, most boring "I wonder how it even qualifies as a town" town I've ever known. I've kicked myself mentally for moving her so blindly for almost the entire time we've lived here. Yet I've come to recognize that living on this quiet street with virtually no traffic in this corner of town with virtually no traffic is really a blessing. We've home schooled her the past two years but were considering public school for this coming school year. Upon our first visit there I noticed the school yard is completely unsecured as well as the entire school not appearing very secure. The school itself is about 1/10th a mile off of a HWY. The school staff try to assure me she would be safe at school. My gut instinct tells me it would be just a matter of time before she slipped out unnoticed and the possibilities of what would follow absolutely terrify me. So we will continue to home school. In the meantime I search for options available to us to somehow keep our sweet and precious girl safe while allowing her to spread her wings. Will the time ever come I won't need to be afraid of her wandering like this, or is this for life?

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