Today is the matriarch of the family's name day (think as important or more so than birthday) and there is a family gathering at her house, so this morning I have been shopping to get the ingredients for the food i have cooked for the gathering of 15 people and associated kids, i have been to four shops and spent a lot of time cooking and preparing the drinks, mojito cocktails.
I am a little hungover as we attended a friends wedding last night and here a wedding is a long affair with drinking until at least 5am, I got in about 5.30am.
Its hot,28 degrees and Im sweating like Gary Glitter in a kindergarden, feeling a bit rough and regretting my lack of Polish language as a lot of people attending today dont speak English.Oh I have also had a few drinks already, more than would be safe to drive.
As all the adults sit down to eat the kids are left alone in the enclosed garden to play, my lad 3 and a half, and a cousin's two children a boy of 5 and a girl of 4, as there is a pool outside I didnt feel it was right to leave them out there alone so went out after the first course of soup to watch them and if Im honest to get away from the table whilst everybody chatted in Polish, my wife had previously been outside with them and they were left alone for no longer than 5 minutes outside.
Now to the crux of the issue, my car was also parked in the garden, when i went outside to check on the kids my lad was climbing out of the back of the car along with the cousins 5 year old boy, i told them it was not a playground and locked it with the remote key from the other side of the garden.
15 minutes later i went down the garden and noticed my new car which i had spent 4 hours polishing the day before ready for the wedding had been effectively keyed along both sides and the boot lid, obviously i called my son over and asked him who had done it and how, now at 3 he doesnt yet lie convincingly so when he told me he hadnt done it i believed him and asked him who had, he then proceeded to tell me it was the cousins 5 year old boy, i looked across at the lad and he was sheepishly playing as far away from me as he could with a small toy car on the floor, upon closer inspection the "keying" has a marked similarity to the wheelbase of a small toy car being run around the car, about 3 times from what i can tell.
I called my wife outside and asked her to move the car out onto the road as i didnt want it in the garden with kids, she then proceeded to do as i asked but then managed to kerb one of the rear wheels taking enough rubber out of the side wall for me to deem it unsafe for the upcoming family holiday driving from Poland back to the UK with stops in Germany and Holland.
I am furious, I cant really bollock the kid as 1, he isnt mine 2, he doesnt speak English and 3 he was playing with my lad at the same time so i have to bare some responsibility by association. My wife didnt want to say anything at the time as it would disrupt Babcha's day (the matriarch). I told her in no uncertain terms i expect an apology from the parents and an offer of payment for the repairs to the paint work, its down through the paint and into the primer in most of the scratches and at the moment it looks well beyond T-cut or similar.
This all happened about 30 minutes ago, in the vain hope of not causing a scene and saying something i will regret later i have made the wife bring me home and left them to it, we only live about a mile away.
Have I overreacted by effectively storming off like a spoilt kid?
//RANT OVER// sorry chaps needed to unload, I await your responses.
You can't have anything nice.