Shopper’s Cruel Words To 4-Year-Old Leave Him Too Heartbroken To Eat

Hannah Sewell/Facebook

A shopper’s cruel remark to a mum and her four-year-old son left the boy so upset, he was unable to eat afterwards.

Young Caden and his mum, Hannah Sewell, were shopping in Aldi when the boy spotted his favourite kind of apples in their trolley.

In his excitement, Caden started to jump up and down. The boy, who can not speak, got even more excited when he saw a stranger coming over to speak to them.

However, what the stranger said was the opposite of what they were expecting.

Hannah was told to control her kid ‘because people are trying to shop’. The woman then bent down to Caden and said:

What is wrong with you, does your mommy never take you anywhere?

Hannah Sewell/Facebook

In a Facebook post, Hannah wrote a public letter to the rude woman, which read:

To the woman in Aldi that made my son and me feel like complete sh*t today.

Im sorry you felt that my son being excited about getting a bag of his favorite 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.’

When I told you that he can’t help it and was just excited, and even apologized to you, you decided to roll your eyes and cut me off. And then you did something i really wasn’t expecting..

Im 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.

I’m not sure if you can tell, but you broke his f*cking heart and mine when you did that. I left all of my groceries and walked out of the store. I took him to Wendys, his favorite place. [sic]

I thought he would like some nuggets and he loves the apple slices there because they’re different colors and he can line the colors up on his tray. But he didn’t get excited. He didn’t smile or jump. He just sat there with the saddest f*cking look on his face while he picked at his food. I hope you’re happy with yourself. [sic]

Signed, pissed off mama.

Edit: the woman was a customer. Not a worker.

Since posting the story, Hannah and Caden have been flooded with messages, similar stories and even people wanting to send Caden his favourite apples and toys.

Just goes to show, for every nasty person out there, there are always many, many more nice ones willing to help.

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Charlie Cocksedge

Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.