I dont know if I handled a situation very well this afternoon so would appreciate some opinions.
I visited a friend. We see each other about once a month. Her youngest boy is my god son and I have a good relationship with all 4.
Her eldest girl is 8. Today she was insisting on watching a certain film, which her mum couldn't find on the TV. She went ballastic - screaming, shouting, kicking at her mum, throwing things. My friend let her do it, didn't tell her to stop and sat being hit and kicked. I sat beside the youngest 2 kids and just continued playing a fame with them. Eldest girl kept screaming for ages (in reality about 5 mins) and was so loud the little ones and I couldn't hear each other. She eventually went into garden and chucked toys and furniture around. My friend didn't say anything about what happened, picked up the cushions and stuff that eldest girl had thrown around.
She went upstairs to the loo and eldest girl came back in screaming. I had brought all kids a few bits b bobs each. She picked up the book I had brought god son and ripped off the covers. I told her not to do that. She continued ripping pages. Her wee brother went to get the book and she punched him in the face, splitting his lip. I shouted at her to stop went to comfort him.
She came over, screaming and kicking, hitting at me. I told her to stop it now but she was incensed. I held her shoulders to keep her at arms length and shouted for her mum. The youngest 2 were howling and she tried to break free to get to her wee brother.
Her mum came back to this maelstrom and said to eldest "oh no, are you still cross?". That was it. Her girl was still screaming and lashing out at me. I said to friend 'jesus Christ, do , here". I lifted eldest and carried her outside, shutting the patio behind me when I came back into the house. Eldest girl was flinging herself against it.
I said to friend 'i think I should go now?", meaning that I probably wasn't helping much, gave the wee ones a hug and left.
Friend texted shortly after saying it was lovely to see me and the kids enjoyed having me there. I replied that is was lovely to see them but I found it stressful with eldest girl and hoped she was ok after her outburst.
No word back from friend.
How should I have dealt with it? Should I have stuck around??