Do you tell your dc off in public? Should I?

[Howmanysleepstilchristmas]

I just read a comment on another thread along the lines of “if they shout at their kids in public, who knows what goes on behind closed doors” and it got me thinking. DH has pulled me up several times for telling the dc off in public, citing that everyone can hear/ it draws attention and looks bad. I speak to them in exactly the same way whether at home or elsewhere (not shouting -unless panicked by exceptionally bad/ risky behaviour- but in my stern, slightly clipped “mum voice”.) My thinking is that bad behaviour needs addressing, and if I don’t suit there and then it’ll continue. I feel like if my reaction is appropriate, it’s appropriate (and if it was over the top it’d be over the top, regardless of if there’s an audience). I wouldn’t speak to my kids in private in a way I’d be ashamed of in public. I feel it’s important to be consistent. Is it just me? Am I doing this wrong? Is it impolite to tell dc off in public? Does waiting until you get home work?

I find parenting much harder in public as there are a lot less options. I can't send one off to chill out safely for 5 minutes. There may be things like time pressures e.g. when a DC is dawdling and will make the others late for school when they are more than capable of speeding up which gets me more shouty because I don't want child A to suffer negative consequences from child B's behaviour.

My main issue is sibling squabbling. It's becoming clear with age that DS1 gets sensory overload, and one of his ways of releasing the mental pressure is picking on his brother and that's very difficult to deal with once he's got his head in that mentality. I can't completely avoid taking them to the supermarkets in the holidays as we need food, and food intolerances mean I have to spread the shop across two shops not meeting minimum online thresholds and one doesn't do online anyway.
So my DC's behaviour may be at its most annoying, and I have less effective strategies to deal with it than I do at home, and that gets me more stressy and snarly (but not sweary) as we plough through an awkward situation in a difficult environment with a potential audience.

Don't always assume that it's worse behind closed doors, it may be much better.

I would be addressing the issues there and then. As long as you don’t hit them or call them names, people will tend to judge you favourably.

I think children need to be told off in public where needed - I don't bat an eyelid if I see it happen. Far better that than pleading with children to behave.

However, one thing I simply can't bear is to see children being smacked in public: this was the ultimate public humiliation when I was a child, there are some moments when I've not forgiven my mum for doing this, especially if it was for something I didn't yet know was wrong, she just did it to make a point. It's very rare now, but I used to see it a lot in the 90s. I've been known to abandon my place in a queue and get out of there if I could see that it was going to happen (and as a child I used to cry in sympathy).