Hannah Sewell's son was confronted by a stranger while shopping for being too excited and the experience left him feeling so sad that she's written an open letter to vent her anger.
Shopping can be a stressful experience for everyone, with or without children.
But when this mum's excited little boy was confronted by a stranger and asked what was wrong with him, she was left feeling angry and emotional.
Taking to Facebook to write an open letter to the stranger, Hannah began: 'To the woman in Aldi that made my son and me feel like complete shit today. I'm sorry you felt that my son being excited about getting a bag of his favourite apples and jumping up and down beside me was such a big deal that you needed to ask me to "control my kid because people are trying to shop".'
Hannah continued to explain how she told the woman, who was a fellow customer not a staff member at Aldi, that her son couldn't help his excitement.
In response the woman rolled her eyes and then did something Hannah was not expecting and made her most angry.
Hannah recalled: 'I'm not sure if you noticed it when you bent down, but Caden got excited again thinking you were coming to say hi. He used to be afraid of strangers.
'We've been working on that. But instead of saying hi, you got close to his face and asked him "What is wrong with you, does your mommy never take you anywhere?" Then you pointed out that he didn't say anything back to you.
'When I informed you that he is unable to talk, you laughed and said "No surprise there, he cant even walk through a store" before walking away.'
Heartbreakingly, Hannah explains that her son was left feeling really upset following the encounter and her best efforts to cheer him up proved useless.
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She added: 'I'm not sure if you can tell, but you broke his f***ing heart and mine when you did that.'
Finishing the post Hannah simply wrote: 'I hope you're happy with yourself.'
The post has received more than 160,000 shares on Facebook and thousands of comments from people who cannot believe how rude and unkind the stranger was to Hannah's son.
One person wrote: 'I’m so sorry that happened to your son, broke my heart to read this. Give that beautiful little guy a hug from me and assure him that not all people are heartless monsters. Karma will catch up with her and I hope you’re there to see it.'
Another added: 'It’s so sad to think that a grown women has to talk down to a kid. Who in their right mind would ever say that? I’m so sorry that you and your son have experienced such an awful person.'
A third said: 'That is just heart breaking to hear! There are some nasty nasty people out there! I hope your little boy is back to his happy self soon lots of love xx'.
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