can't stop thinking about awful parents at park

[cantsleep6thjune2023]

I'm so ashamed of myself for doing or saying nothing today. I honestly thought i would've had the guts but clearly not.

Me and my 3 dc were sitting on a park bench today ( early for appointment) when s couple and a baby around 12 ish months sat on the opposite bench.

Both of them started drinking cider ? and the baby started to cry. Dad told baby she was a little bitch and if it wasn't for them fighting she would be in care.
Mum then told him not to give the stupid fucking bitch any attention.

The calmness and ease was disturbing and i can only imagine what happens between close doors

How i wish i said something 😪

PLEASE make the report to social services anyway as the description & location will ring a bell with the social workers if, as they eluded to, there was already an ongoing case

I have sent a phoptograph before now. My tip is look into the screen as though you are doing a selfie,, and then fiddle with your hair/fringe as though you're getting that right as you tilt the angle of your head and the phone to get the incident in and then do the pouty thing, and you should be able to get what you need with them thinking you're taking a photo of them.

@MollyRover
I think we may be at cross purposes here, but also on the same page.
I was proffering suggestions as to possible reasons why child abuse/neglect situations were not being properly investigated or dealt with.
I also said that I needed to be wary of looking back with rose-tinted glasses, but I do feel that cases similar to those described by PPs on this thread were investigated more seriously and dealt with more robustly when I was practising in the 80's and 90's. I still remember many that I was involved with.
(Sometimes too robustly if anyone remembers the Cleveland cases in 1987).
I too hate the phrase "lessons will be learnt".
I said that I felt the bar has been raised higher with regard to which situations are deemed to warrant action, and which aren't, and suggested that lack of resources because of budget cuts could be a factor.
And @RedRosette2023 has in fact supported what I suggested.
Child abuse/neglect is a complex issue. It's not always 100% provable, parents/carers can be manipulative and deceitful, and yes, there may well be some not-very-competent social workers. There certainly seems to be a lot of vacancies and agency workers as well.
Providing possible reasons for inadequate professional intervention is not the same as excusing it. I never intended to suggest the latter.
But it's a long time since I was a social worker - my suggestions were just theories, and social workers practising today who are on MN will no doubt have more factual responses.

Thank you. Next time I will try and get a photo and I'll report it. In this particular case it all happened so quickly that I was kind of in shock. It was one of those situations where I really felt as though my blood was running cold and my heart was pounding. I suppose I was too shocked to react but that's no use to the poor child.
I find it disheartening that of all the horrific cases of child abuse and murder we see in the news, social services ARE usually involved but fail to save the children. I realise there are many cases where children are saved. The mother I saw was very normal looking - brown hair, average build, nothing distinctive about her. I don't think they would have tracked her down from my description.
But you're absolutely right - we should still report and hope that something is done.