Are my kids annoying?

OK...Brooke has been here several days now and I can tell she has reached her patience threshold with the boys. They follow her around like puppies, constantly call her name and fight over who gets to play with her. The only thing she wants to play now is "hide and seek" minus the "seek". They were just playing with trains and I could sense it was about to go terribly wrong. It starts with a little squeal...then I hear something being thrown....then yelling....then crying. Brooke's attempt to calm everyone down (the best way a 10-year-old can) is not working. I hear her take a deep breath and say "EVERYONE PLEASE JUST STOP TALKING TO ME!" She sounded very frustrated and totally ready to go home. Now this didn't really bother me. They had played nicely long enough for me to clean the breakfast dishes and rotate the laundry. I was a happy camper...but these are MY kids. For some reason, I'm just more tolerant. I started thinking about a few things that happened yesterday...


The boys started their summer reading class yesterday. It actually takes place in a college classroom with seven other 4 and 5 year olds and their moms. At the beginning of class, the teacher gave instructions that they needed to raise their hand and wait to be called on before speaking. Now, I'm sure he didn't expect these children to do this perfectly, but I think he did expect to get a little help from the moms to keep order in the classroom so he could teach. There was a couple of kids who constantly spoke out of turn. The more the teacher tried to ignore them, the more upset they got and the more they misbehaved. On the positive side...these kids were very smart and very outgoing. It's like they were going to explode if they didn't get to give the answer. At first, I thought "how embarrassing for these moms, that their kids aren't following directions". Then I realized that they were totally proud of the fact their kids were obviously the smartest ones in the class. It didn't seem even to cross their mind that following directions is an important thing for their kids to learn too. I wondered if they were thinking just the opposite about me and my kids...."Poor kids, they need to learn how to speak up for themselves and be more outgoing".


Later that day, we went swimming in the kiddie pool. There were 2 very rambunctious brothers in there with us. For a good 30 minutes, I assumed these brothers (about 5 and 6) were not being supervised by anyone. They were body slamming each other into the water; holding each others heads under; and karate kicking each other like crazy. They did seem to be having a good time with each other, but it was totally violent. Then I realized they were being watched whole time and were allowed to act this was. Their dad, who was obviously a bodybuilder, was tanning just outside the pool and found them to be entertaining. He (like the mom in the story above) was proud of them and seemed to feel sorry for my 5-year-old who stayed to himself in the safety of his floatation ring. This rough play went on for a while and all the other kids were watching. Some kids purposely stayed away (like mine), others looked like they wanted to join in but knew they would get in trouble. Then, another little boy walked up to one of the brothers and pushed them. He was younger and smaller then both of the brothers and was smiling while he did it...it wasn't meant to be mean...he just wanted to join in their game which he probably figured was acceptable behavior since nobody was stopping them. The dad freaked out and very rudely told this little boy (who he didn't know) not to push. Then his son's continued playing their violent game. Is it just me...or is something wrong with this man? Does every parent think their kids are the best ones wherever they are?

...and if that's the case, does it mean my kids are NOT the cutest kids in the whole wide world?