How much is too much?

So I know that compared to a lot of parents these days I am pretty strict. I might be a little more lenient when my kids get older but for now I have rules. I may not always know why I instill these rules day after day but I do. I do wonder sometimes if I am too hard on my kids. I wonder if what I'm doing is going to affect them in a good way, a bad way, or not even at all. I know it is affecting them a little because when they go to someones house they are well mannered and far better behaved than at home.

I expect a lot out of my children. I will give them the tools to get what they want out of life so they need not to take it for granted. I want them to be polite, nice and generous to people. I want them to know that I love them more than anything. I want them to know that they can do whatever they put their minds to. A friend told me about her "can't jar" once. She said that when her daughters say they can't do something they have to put money into the jar. It has taught them to say I need help with this or I don't understand. I have taken on this learning tool into my own househeld without the actual jar. It would drive me insane when Austin says he can't do something. He has now learned to say I need help or I have a problem.

I don't want my children to get hurt. I want them to respect their things and people. I need them to understand these things so I made rules. For example, no running in the house, or you trip over daddys shoes and smack your face into the window ledge and get a huge cut in your face. Or books are for reading no throwing them around or I take them away and put them in the basement. These things are hard for me to enforce sometimes because they are having so much fun running in the house. They are also getting excersize. Taking away their books seems a little strange because now they have nothing to read and look at. But if they don't learn to respect them and use them the way they are supposed to what else are they going to wreck? It was hard for me to take away their books but I need them to understand that they can't just wreck things and not care. They might be a little young to understand this yet but one day they will, I hope!

I do these things because I love them and I want them to be great people one day. I can't let them get away with everything all the time because then they will never understand right from wrong. Kids will be kids, yes, but one day they will be adults.