Is there a gene for that?

This may come as a surprise to you, but I was 17 - almost 18 - when I first received my driver's license. This isn't due to the fact that I never took the test ... I did ... three times! I didn't fail it twice because I was reckless or because I couldn't parallel park or because I ran a stop sign. Why did I fail? you ask. To answer this most curious question I shall quote the man who conducted my road test:

"You are a danger to others on the road, a menace! You are overly cautious!"

Flash forward 25 years...

My daughter knows how to walk. She loves to walk. She refuses to be carried and seldom crawls. However, she will only walk if she can hold on to a person, a piece of furniture, her stroller, the grocery buggy, or keep one hand on the wall. She has walked around our entire block - pushing her stroller. She walks all over the church - along the walls. She insists on walking through the grocery store - holding on to the buggy.

Do you think there is a "cautious" gene? If so, we definitely have it.

To be fair, she has been walking a few (unassisted) steps at a time over the past few days. We decided to help her realize that it is ok to fall (she also has her father's "perfectionist" gene) and so we giggle when she falls. Now she will walk a few steps and then fall on purpose so that she can giggle and say, "OOOOH!" What a silly, cautious, perfect child.