Supermarket shopping with small children is used as a method of torture in some autocratic states.
OK. Not really. But it would be damn effective. (A limited budget, a limited time-frame and row upon row of brightly coloured packaging positioned right at four-year-old eye level would be enough to break even the strongest will. Through in dozens of judgemental spectators, and… SNAP.)
British mother, Zoe Langer, knows this torture all too well. But in the midst of a recent – and particularly difficult – supermarket experience, a complete stranger managed to ease her suffering.
The Manchester woman was wrangling her daughter at her local Sainsbury’s supermarket when a woman approached her clutching a note.
“You’re doing a wonderful job,” it read. “Wine aisle is 23.”
It was signed, simply, “From one mother to another.”
In case that wasn't kind enough, stapled to to the note was a voucher for £10 (AU$18.50).
Sharing an image of the message to a Facebook parenting group, Zoe wrote, "So totally overwhelmed! Most divine girl has obviously seen me struggling with my monkey of a little girl and handed me this note with a voucher to buy myself some wine!
"A gesture I will remember for the rest of my life!"
On the chance the sympathetic stranger should see her post, she added, "I want to tell you that people like you make the world a better place and your kindness means so much to me."