I think being "horrified" in such a situation would frighten and confuse the children and serve no actual purpose. I really doubt an adult woman in our culture was "horrified" by the sight of two people having sex, and that her and the presses use of the term were the kind of hyperbole that the great American hand-wringers are prone to, and it will rub off on the kids. People who are "horrified" by situations seldomly act rational in the face of them.
Maybe she was horrified though. I mean sex outside of a bedroom could be disturbing enough to witness it in plain daylight. Add to this her young children are with her. I would stand behind the “horrified” term.
Trust me, Joe, she was horrified.
I beg to differ. Recently there was a case in Chicago where a principal and a teacher (at least one of whom was married to someone else) had a liason in a storage room in the school during school hours. The kids had no idea that it had happened and no possible way to witness the act. But it got picked up on a security camera.
The camera tape got published on the Internet. The next school board meeting was invaded by a number of the local soccer moms who literally screamed at the school board about the danger these two had put their children in. They demanded and got the two fired. They also got their teaching credentials cancelled so that they could never work in a school again. I don't know if any of them used the word "horrified", but it seemed to fit their reactions in part at least.