Mum is shamed when shopper films her son having tantrum

A furious mum watched in horror as another shopper film her son having a tantrum in Target, as she tried desperately to calm him down.

 And now the mum has written an open letter to the shopper saying how upset she is by the intrusion.

Steph Montogomery’s five-year-old son visited Target with his mum, but had a meltdown during their shopping trip and when Steph was trying to placate her little boy, she looked up and saw they were both being filmed on the mystery woman's phone.

She wrote on romper.com, ‘As I knelt on the floor, trying to comfort my baby, I saw you over his shoulder and the situation officially became too much for me to handle. You recorded my kid's public tantrum on your phone, and I couldn't believe it.'

Steph, from the US, added, 'As much as I wanted to call you out in the moment, I couldn't find the words to describe how intrusive your actions were and how horrified I was.'

Steph, who doesn't reveal where the Target shop was, admits she was too traumatised to call out to the woman to stop but she will never forget her actions, writing, 'Recording our vulnerable moment —presumably to laugh at it later or post it on the internet — was rude, cruel, and so violating. My son deserved better. I deserved better.'

There's no doubt the world is fascinated by other people's kids having tantrums. When Princess Charlotte had a meltdown on the tarmac of a German airport during an official visit, most mums could relate to how Kate Middleton would have felt at that moment! 

But in her letter, Steph now says she's worried the footage will pop up on-line and she will be shamed again.

She said in her letter, 'Perhaps you will read this letter and think twice about sharing the video you took of my son. Maybe you'll simply decide never to record another unsuspecting child again. In the end, I just hope you realize how your actions made me, a struggling mom just trying to be there for her child, feel.'

Read the full letter here

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been mum-shamed in public?