Melt down at the park ......

We usually go to the park everyday from 10ish to noon . Today was not different , the park we use had a group meeting of some sort and there was soo many kids we walked abit further to a smaller , preschool is park . Everyone loved it and was having a good time , I have a 17 month who is very determined to do as the others so I was shadowing her for about 45 min .
It was so hot out we had a water break in the shade and the 17 month old did not appreciate the break ... At all !!
Full meltdown , all that was expected was a water break , dc baby threw a fit , threw herself down , I sat her in the stroller , she went full melt down and tried to bite the stroller ? She is usually a good , easy going child , but I'm thinking more of her at two yrs old so I let her sit until she stopped screaming and tantrum-ing and let her out but she threw herself on the ground and started up again . So I put her back in the stroller and we got ready to leave just trying not to give the tantrum too much attention . She stopped and was almost asleep on the walk home but I did get a couple of looks !
I am confident with two yr olds , I do time out at parks if needed but this little one looks like a baby , would you of let her tantrum on the ground ? I didn't want to of had to leave but if she's throwing herself around the stroller first she could hurt herself and/or we got more than a couple of looks . Maybe it's not a big deal to see a lo losing it at the park ?

I don't think it's a big deal to see a kid acting out when in public. It happens to everyone that deals with children at some point or another (or multiple times lol). I would go about it the same way you would if it was happening at home/dc. Children aren't dumb and figure out real quick how and when to play the game if we aren't consistent with them. Don't worry about what others think and just congratulate yourself in being strong enough to enforce the rules no matter what. I know it's terrible to judge just a glimpse of someone's elses life but it drives me crazy when I see an adult giving into a child just so they don't tantrum in public.

Knock on wood.....my dck's have never tantrumed in public though. I usually get told by multiple people how well behaved my children are (they always assume I'm the mom not the dcprovider). I have 2 in my care now that will probably change this though!! haha.

Thanks 5lm prob just is I'm not used to that young !!