You're clearly not distinguishing between their "wanting" and "doing".
As for their wants - believe it or not, children are individuals.
Sometimes their wants will coincide with yours, other times they won't. Sometimes you have to argue with/persuade them to do as their told, sometimes you don't. Sometimes they'll jump at the idea of something different and exciting, other times they'll just stubbornly insist that the only thing that could possibly make them happy (even if there's a power cut and a flying saucer landing in the garden) is watching the Octonauts for the twentieth time. Sometimes young children will throw a tantrum if you say they can't have [x]. Sometimes they won't - especially if you're able to divert them with something else, such as the prospect of a fire in the hearth (which hadn't occurred to them, strangely) after a rather difficult candle-lit dinner.
It sounds as if you haven't got children.
Michael