Over the weekend, Mamamia staff member Ruby Thomas faced a dilemma: intervene and stop a toddler from getting seriously hurt, or say nothing?
It seemed like a no-brainer, and so Thomas chose to follow her instincts, do the right thing and speak up – only to be immediately shamed by a stranger for her trouble.
Thomas was waiting in line to order a coffee at a hole-in-the-wall cafe, behind a mum with an 18-month-old baby in a pram, and an older boy, around two or three years old.
When it was her turn to order, the mum quickly ducked inside the cafe, leaving her two kids outside, as the cafe was too small to fit the pram.
Then, the kids started fighting.
Thomas said she at first tried to ignore the situation, as the little boy started smacking his baby sister over her head with a hardcover children's book, and then punching her.
But soon, the boy started shoving the book near the baby's eye - and that's when Thomas spoke up.
"Instinctively, I said 'you better be careful, you might hurt her'. It looked like he could have taken her eye out," she said.
"He was a bit shocked, but he stopped what he was doing. A lady nearby looked at me as if to say, 'thank God somebody said something.' But then, another lady said 'they're not your kids - you shouldn’t speak to them like that'.
