Child being sworn at by mum - should I have said something?

[PauliesWalnuts]

Feel so awful about this. Am on a walking regime at the moment so did a good long walk in the hills near me and then did a loop of my local park on the way home, which was absolutely full of kids, families, couples with dogs etc.

I overtook a man and woman who had two kids with them - a not newborn baby in a buggy, and a little girl who was no more than eight. As I went past them the little girl asked for something from the little cafe, and the woman absolutely exploded. She bellowed at her to “shut the f up”, she called her a “selfish little brat” and “a fing little tw*t”. This went on for a couple of minutes and the little girl just absolutely wilted. The woman was relentless. Nobody said anything but there were plenty of people about who couldn’t have failed to hear it. The man just ignored it and looked at his phone while she was tearing strips off this poor little girl.

And here’s the thing - neither did I. I was so torn about whether to tackle her, that I just didn’t. I walked off because I couldn’t bear to watch it. My boyfriend (who wasn’t with me) is very risk averse and won’t get involved in things - he had a neighbour who was seriously hurt after trying to break up a fight between strangers. I’m normally happy to wade in - I can look after myself if she’d have got violent, but I just kept thinking that if I did get involved, would she have taken it out on the little girl when they got home?
Ugh, I’m going to go over this in my head all day. What would you have done? She wasn’t being physical with the child but I’ve never ever heard someone use language that bad to a little child before.

I honestly don't know how I would have reacted but suspect that I would probably have done the same as you through fear that intervening may have made the situation worse or she/they may have become aggressive or worse

This sort of thread comes up all the time and the general concesus is that most people wouldn't have got involved.

Then there'll be a few posts telling you that you should've contacted SS, to which others will point out that you don't know the child or where they live/go to school etc.

It's a horrible thing to witness OP but in reality what could you have done, that didn't risk making matters worse?

It's very scary to interfere and sometimes it can make things worse

I have seen one situation similar where someone intervened by asking the Mum 'what can I do to help you'
She burst in to tears - had obviously been hugely stressed. That worked out well

Could just as easily have turned round and punched her though...

Another tactic apparently is to drop something or trip right next to them so it stops the person in their tracks as they can't ignore you

Thanks for the comments. I wasn’t scared for myself - as it was I was close to hitting the horrible woman - I just didn’t want to make things worse for the little girl. I k ow kids can pester, and I know people are on tight fuses in general at the moment, but there was a real, visceral hatred from the woman that I’ve never ever seen before. I’m trying to sew something this afternoon and I’ve given up because I can’t concentrate.