A few weeks ago, my DD came home from XWH's house with her face all scraped up. She had run into a tree while sledding, XWH emailed me to do damage control (actually, I think CommandOwife wrote it, but whatever), etc. At the time, the kids told me that they were sledding on XWH's property. Well, kids will hurt themselves, and that was that. I wasn't going to make a big fuss.
A few days later, my children were recounting the accident to my parents. My mom asked DS #1, "Where were you sledding on your dad's property that DD hit a tree?"
Quick backstory: Rotting Acres is located on the edge of a dropoff into a creek. When we moved in there, we immediately had the entire yard fenced in because we were afraid that the kids would fall down the slope toward the creek and get hurt. In the time that I lived there, we were vigilant about making the kids stay inside of the fence, not climb on the fence, etc.
So... DS #1 informs us that they were sledding outside of the fence and down the hill (which is filled with trees... I'm not sure how they found a clear stretch to sled in) toward the creek. It was there that DD hit a tree and got injured.
I then sent a polite note to XWH letting him know that I felt going outside the fence was very dangerous, and I hoped that he would never allow the kids to do that again. While the creek is typically shallow near Rotting Acres, I have no idea if it goes deeper in places. One of the kids could have slid into the creek and onto thin ice; there's no way I'd let little kids do that.
XWH gave me crickets, but that's fine. I wanted my objection on record; my DD's face still hurts even though the scrapes have healed, so she probably injured the tissue more deeply than just the surface.
Fast forward to this week: DD got marker on her face. I gently wiped it, but the wiping that I did abraded the surface a bit, so she has a small mark above her eyebrow. I put cream on it, and she's fine. However, XWH has been lying in wait to smack me back for scolding him over the sledding incident, and he emails me to inform me in his condescending way that I should let him know when one of the kids is "injured," and he provides me with a suggestion as to how to better remove the ink next time.
HA HA HA! Are you kidding me!?!? You let the kids sled in a questionable area at best, and our DD gets really hurt, and then you actually give me a lecture on DD's skin care!?!? That's too funny. I think he's gone off his nut. What a wackjob.
I'm so glad I told my kids the truth about him. He's an asshole no matter how you slice it. At least I don't have to also deal with protecting his image.