Germanic and Celtic tribes often took the whole family with them when raiding or fighting. Quoting wikipedia "Armies also often consisted of more than 50 percent noncombatants."

This could result in worse defeats - the fighting men could get pinned in between the wagons behind and the enemy in front. As happend a few times when fighting the Romans.

In fact, in the late middle ages, during the pre-Protestant religious wars, a German ancestor of mine left his castle with an armored wagon, a cannon, and his family. They lost the battle and never returned to castle. The family fled and changed their name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_wagon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_fort

The presence of women and children with a northern European army is not very conclusive evidence that they were there as warriors