It was the kind of meltdown you can hear from two aisles away—my child screaming about the wrong cereal, flailing in the cart like a fish out of water. My face was hot. My heart raced. My brain offered a highlight reel of every person silently judging me.

And then… a woman walked by, smiled gently, and said, “You’re doing great.”

She didn’t fix anything. But in that moment, she gave me something I didn’t know I needed: grace.

Motherhood is full of moments like that—public failures, private victories, and everything in between. And if we can offer each other even a little grace, even when we don’t understand, we make the world softer for all moms.

So to the woman in the cereal aisle: thank you. And to every mom reading this—keep going. You’re doing great.