They think I'm a rotten parent...oh well they're mine to screw up if I want

My kids love going to the park. They can spend an entire afternoon at a playground. I love it. I find myself a nice spot to sit and pull out a good book. Out of the corner of my eye I see what their up to but usually it doesn't take long from me to get lost in my book. The kids are all over the playground. Climbing all over everything. When they were younger the rule was if you can't climb up it without help you're to small to be climbing on it. They knew when we were at the playground they were on their own. I'm not one of those parents who follows their kids around on the playground helping them do it. I didn't push them on the swing they learned to swing their feet. I didn't help them up the ladder for the slide, if they couldn't climb up they shouldn't be up there. But it didn't take long for my kids to notice all the other parents tagging along behind their kids. To put it bluntly, this pissed them off. Why don't you lift us up? Why won't you push us? My answer remained the same. This is a playground for kids, if you aren't big enough to do it by yourself you shouldn't be on it. Unfortunately, in this instance anyway, I also taught my kids that if they need help and Mom and Dad aren't around, ex. we got separated in a store or something, they should chose someone to help them, a woman with small children usually being their safest bet. If someone comes up to them and offers help to avoid them. It's always better to pick someone that to let someone pick you. So the Three Musketeers decided to put that advice to good use and played the poor me card. "Ma'am can you push me on the swing?" Of course, this causes the woman to look around and see who the horrible parent is who left their kid to play in the playground by themselves, horrors of all horrors. Sometimes my kid would point to me and I would wave with a smile. Needless to say many parents didn't agree with my attitude and I got a lot of nasty looks. I also let them climb things by themselves. A few times they got up to far and needed rescue but I took my time getting there and amazingly they often got down on their own before I arrived. I wanted my kids to learn their limits, even if they got some bumps and bruises along the way. What I ended up with is kids who know how to ask someone for help if they need it and know what it feels like to trust your feelings when you talk to an adult. Not a bad trade off. Even if half the parents in the playground think I suck as a parent.