Toddler thrown rocks at. I lost it!

[Asia98]

Was I unreasonable?

Went to a picnic spot (I live abroad so no lockdown here). DS (2 years old) was playing with sand next to us and a child ( girl 6) came and started throwing rocks close by. Her mother was sitting by, saw and said nothing. Her daughter continued and I asked the mother if she could intervene. The mother just looked at me and turned away. Daughter still throws rocks- I move DS away, her daughter follows and continues. I asked her to stop. She starts laughing and does it more. Her mum sees says nothing. I sit DS next to me in highchair - her daughter continues and hits my back and then I completely lost it and yelled at the mum. She starts crying picks up her daughter and then says her daughter has learning difficulties and that I and others are cruel and that they are treated like this everywhere they go! I explain to her nicely that she could have told me this but her not saying anything or intervening just made me think she was lazy and unbothered.

I don't know any parents with children who have SEN that don't parent their children.

I do. Unfortunately for the poor kids they were crap parents to their other kids first. Very anti-authority, anti-teacher, I-know-my-rights types.

YANBU.
In fact you were much more patient than I would have been in that situation.
There’s no excuse for not stopping a kid throwing rocks at people(!). And even if she does have learning difficulties that makes no difference.

It sounds like you were patient and plenty of chances for her to intervene. Before the first lockdown we were at a toddler music group, and someone was hitting DS over the head with one of the instruments, I moved us and then the girl followed and did it again and laughed. I said to the parent could they please stop, and they said they're toddlers for goodness sake blah blah. Rough play is one thing, being accidentally hit by a rogue toy happens, but not purposefully hitting someone repeatedly- it's reasonable to say something.

@Babbly

There's not one single learning difficulty that means you're allowed to throw rocks at people. There's no learning difficulty that means the mother shouldn't have stepped in. If she had learning difficulties then she might not understand not to do it but then her mother needs to move her away, not just allow her to do it. This attitude of "I don't have to parent because my child has learning difficulties" or "my child is allowed to hurt other children because they have learning difficulties" is increasingly common and it's completely unacceptable. It causes untold damage to parents who are actually trying to appropriately parent their children who have difficulties.

Really ?? I would say the opposite ,my child has severe learning disabilities and autism ,ime ,parents with children with similar needs,watch their children like hawks ,and more often than not it is the child with learning disabilities that is the vulnerable one .

I would have said something as soon as they threw the second rock
Honestly the problem is with the parent not you