Boring or Bold?

I go to a play date with other families with young children in our neighborhood on Thursdays.  Today was not my best day.  It was one of those days where you feel like you're a screaming parent in the middle of all the calm parents. 

It wasn't that bad, it's just that my children were doing things that I would rather they not do and I wasn't handling myself well (I didn't yell even though I thought I was going to.)  My daughter wanted to careen down the side yard on her tricycle without a helmet, towards a drainage ditch featuring large, sharp, eight-inch rocks.  Fortunately, I was at the bottom and was able to stop her while letting her fall a little so that she had a, "natural consequences" lesson.   She still has no idea she's mortal, even so.

My son refused to stay on the sidewalk, preferring to both ride and stand still in the middle of the road, especially where oncoming cars couldn't see him.  He, and my daughter weren't listening.  I felt like I was repeating myself and that frustrates me.

We've been working on the, "ask once" expectation.  Right now, we're at ask three times and you lose a privilege or I physically help you do the thing you're not doing on your own (such as going straight to the potty without complaining). 

When my husband called on the way home from work, I vented some of my frustrations (which were mostly fueled by my daughter smearing milk all over the table, chairs, dog and floor while I was out of the room for three minutes.

We work tirelessly on our children's behavior.  We have high expectations.  We support each other in our parenting goals.  And yet at these events with other children, is it me thinking my children are more rambunctious, more hard-headed, more bold than other children?  Is it the independence we encourage in our children that makes them more challenging in other areas? 

I can say one thing though, our children are anything but boring.

The Big Boy Update:  The tooth.  My son has a tooth that's a little off in color.  Usually, this means there was some trauma to the tooth and even though we and his teachers don't recall any specific event, it does look like there's been damage to the tooth.  We've had our neighbor look at it because he's our dentist.  He reassured us that it is completely fine and it won't jeopardize the growth of the permanent tooth unless there's an infection and it doesn't look like he has that.  To be sure, we're going to get an X-ray of the tooth.  It looks like he may have one darker tooth for the next several years though until his permanent one grows in. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "No, I want the Hot Dog!"  I didn't realize what she was saying until I looked up and saw the "Hot Dog Song" on the television.  She wanted to dance to the last song in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show and was asking me to not turn off the television yet.