About six years ago, I had a kid kicking the back of my seat. I asked his mother (nicely) to please have him stop. She smirked at me and said “boys will be boys.” He did it again and I told him to stop. Mom was not pleased I tried to correct her son, and told me so. He started again. I got up on my knees in the seat, leaned over, and screamed at him: “I SAID STOP KICKING MY (f-word here)ing SEAT!!!!” Kid was crying, mom was angry, passengers were high-fiving me, and the flight attendants were laughing (and gave me free beer).
I would have applauded you for that.