For anyone with kids, eating out at a restaurant can be challenging to say the least. Scenes of parents trying to get their kids to sit still, stay quiet and eat their food is all too familiar. It’s a common occurence and though it isn’t pleasant, it’s to be expected but some people just don’t understand and make the experience for the parents more uncomfortable by giving looks of disapproval and disgust.

Ashley England was out with her husband, two kids and other family members at the Stag-N-Doe pizza restaurant in China Grove, North Carolina, when her eldest son eight year old Riley, started acting out making screaming noises and beating the table because he was hungry and he couldn’t get the Netflix on his mother’s phone to work. He threw the phone in frustration and was met with the usual “looks” by fellow dining patrons.

Diagnosed as a toddler, Riley suffers from epilepsy, is non verbal and is a special needs child. He has up to 100 daily seizures and has outbursts all the time but as of late, it’s gotten especially difficult to keep his behavior under control. Many have asked Ashley why she takes him out in public only to suffer the disapproval of others and she admits that it does take a toll on the family and it can indeed be embarrassing at times.

Cut to the scene where the England family are getting ready to pay the bill and leave, when a waitress with tears in her eyes comes to their table and says, “I’ll try to do this without crying, but another customer has paid for your bill tonight and wanted me to give you this note.”

Ashley broke down and cried.

She had told CNN, “The past few months have been so hard. He just doesn’t know what we’ve been going through and how much it was needed at the moment.”

Ashley updated her Facebook and shared about what had happened at the restaurant and left a message for the kind stranger in hopes that he would see it, “Dear stranger, thank you for giving me a blessing tonight in a way you will never know.” The post has gone viral since.

So the next time you’re out in public and see a kid throwing a tantrum and a mother trying patiently to deal with it, here’s something you can think about.

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.”

And maybe instead of ignoring it or looking at the parents like they are doing something wrong when they already have their hands full, you could pass on to them a smile of encouragement.

You never know the lives you might change in that very moment with that simple little act of kindness.