1. Sheltering to what extent though? It's great to be a shoulder to lean on when a child has a bad day or something, but you cannot shelter them too much or they won't know how to deal with the real world.
I remember when I had spend time in this household because my mother was working. The children were so overprotected. Granted I wasn't fans of the neighbors, but the guardians NEVER allowed the kids to go outside. We (me, my brother, and the other kids) often had to be together all the time so the other kids never really associated with anyone beside me and my brother, though we found them really annoying and delusionally arrogant. And as we see on the kids during school, he acted like he was having hallucinations, especially toward me and my brother. He absolutely did not know how to deal with people and he picked up bad habits. More over, he thinks me and him are friends. I don't even consider him an associate in the most liberal meaning. And he gets clingy as hell.
I understand the her connections will access her to privileges, but limiting her to some of life's problems aren't gonna help her in the long run.