Neighbours

Sunday was crap.
Had a huge fight with the bloke who lives opposite.
He made my eldest son cry when he shouted at him. My husband went over to ask if everything was OK and could we talk about it, he had misinterpreted what had happened, my lad was demonstrating in slow motion why someone had been sent off in a footy game he had seen. He looked out the window and thought he saw my lad kicking his lad, he went off on one.
His lad even tried to tell him, he wouldn't listen and was convinced what he saw was right. He then proceeded to accuse my children of CONSTANT BULLYING and CONSTANT SWEARING ( my little one owned up to saying 'bitch' once but admitted he didn't know what it meant). We called a stop to the conversation and said we needed to go away cool off and have a proper discussion when we had all calmed down, we said that accusations of bullying were very serious and needed to be dealt with properly.
We went back to ours but he knocked on the door anyway a few minutes later....he didn't want to cool off. It all got very heated and out of hand, I became a defensive Mama Bear fishwife hybrid. I am not proud of myself. I feel shit today.
I was surprised at how defensive I got, I always thought I would be able to deal with any criticism of the children with a cool head but he was no fucking idea what he is talking about.
All the children in the Close fall out from time to time, none of them pick on each other although they are occasionally mean and argue. From what I remember that's what being a kid is like. He has no clue what they play like because he never ever comes out and sees what's going on. His kid is forever dancing about on the top of his car and sliding down the bonnet, he has accused other kids of scratching the car bonnet with footballs when his lad has just finished doing the fandango all over it.
His kid just craves attention and his weapon of choice is telling tales, he gets the most attention by getting other children into trouble. I know because I have spent years pretending to clean windows, tending my garden and literally sitting on the drive in a deck chair reading a glossy mag making sure they are all ok.
I have never been so angry, I was shaking , my mouth went dry, even my husband, who has a Yoda like calm about him, was tense to say the least.
I tried to reason with him but he was having none of it, he has my children down as evil little devils and that's all he had to say on the matter. My kids are obviously mortified, we talked a lot about bullying at home and at school and they know all the reasons why it is wrong, what to do to stop it and what to do if you are a victim of it. Kids falling out is one thing accusations of bullying is quite another fish. This guy has been in a bad mood for about five years, he regularly throws his lad out the front door and I have seen the kid wandering around the Close after 8pm (he is 6) when they seem to have forgotten to call him in for a bath.
We are lucky that we live in a plce where the children can play out safely but he is ruining it with misguided over protection and a lack of common sense. It is so difficult reasoning with someone who is so unreasonable. We already have one dodgy neighbour in the street another would just be rubbish!
I feel a little bit sick that our lovely little enclave is going to be mashed because this grumpy fucker can't rememeber what it was like being a kid, they have to learn to get along.
Policing the world from behind your net curtains does fuck all, get your arse out and take your place. If the most trouble my children ever get into is falling out over who is the better footy team and saying pishh off then I'll buy that for a dollar.
Is it too early for gin?