I was in the train as usual the other day, seated on a seat I usually managed to luckily get on the Circle Line; and no, it wasn't because someone thought I was pregnant. This is why I love Circle Line, seats are not an unachievable dream.

At one train station, two loud and for lack of better description, sun-dried dyed hair, tight earth-coloured tops, LV trashy women entered the cabin. Obviously foreigners but I couldn't tell where they were from, partly because I was on earphones, and partly because my ears suck at discerning languages. It was definitely not because of their volume of speech and instant 'look-at-me' gesticulations that would make any third world diva proud.

They also had one baby stroller each. One baby was hidden from my view, the other was a bubbly little girl who's about... let me guess, about one year plus of age? I'm horrible at guessing baby ages but my point is she was tiny enough to be called a baby and to be forgiven for anything.

















Okay she wasn't this small but isn't this baby sooooo cutttttttteeeeeeeesssssss!!


This feisty baby girl started to maneuver her way out, at one point she was standing up on the stroller, obviously a reincarnate of G.I. Jane.

The mother, as if ignited by North Korean soldiers, instantly let out levels of fury from her mouth towards her child. It may as well have been towards the train as all of the passengers (as far as I could see) were looking at her.

From there began the onslaught of Tiger-Mom temper.

This mother lifted the child up violently by her feet and started to dunk her upside down in fast, repeated movements, onto the ground, in order to 'see if she's scared now'.

Then the mother eventually pushed the toddler on the train floor for a few seconds and put her back into the stroller.

The girl wailed and cried and the mother slapped her a few times to stop her crying.

Same process repeated a few times throughout the train journey, while the other mother watched in amusement.

Many passengers that witnessed the same thing furrowed their brows whenever the mother pulled the toddler out abruptly like a toy doll out of the stroller to do the upside-down dunking paired with verbal abuse.

Before you curse me for being a timid hypocrite for not stopping the mother, these were the thoughts running through my head then:

• The mother was aggressive but there wasn't any affirmative violence. In the whole process, the toddler didn't hit the ground, the slaps were child-version slaps mostly on the bum.

• What was my tipping point then? By which point will I feel so disturbed I'd get up and stop the mother? When she slaps her in the face?
  

• Would I be laughed at for my stupidity in interfering with people's private business? After all, in essence what the mother did was to take her daughter on a roller-coaster disciplinary ride.

• She didn't look stable enough to be a mother. Personal opinion.
  

• And finally I realised, that most people of my generation were brought up in the era where canes (and for the unlucky some, belts) were common in child-rearing methods. Times have changed so much, from where we spoke with pride on how we escaped the caning, to where the slightest physical punishment pushes our quivering hearts a little. I'll not touch on the two schools of spanking vs no-spanking of kids makes good upbringing.

What I was sure though, if it had happened with someone I knew, I'd have stopped it. Now, what does that make me?