Jess Wolfe was shopping with her kids when a stranger asked for her phone.

Jess Wolfe was struggling through a trip to the supermarket when a stranger approached. What the stranger said has gone viral, touching mums worldwide.

Wolfe, a photographer who lives in the US, had her four kids – Zion, Ezra, Ireleigh and Salem – with her at the time.

“Sweaty, baby strapped to my back, three-year-old insisting that her belly hurts and NEEDS her donut that she forgot to eat after lunch, six-year-old using everything in sight as a weapon, seven-year-old wanting to spend the only dollar he has…” she posted on Facebook last Thursday. “This. This was my trip to the grocery today.”

While Wolfe was bagging up her groceries, “and trying to quietly keep from losing my ever-loving sh*t”, the woman standing next to her asked if she had a phone that takes pictures.

“Trying not to convey my annoyance to someone else adding to the million questions that make up my day, I replied that, yes I do have one of those fancy phones. She asked to take a picture of me with the kids. At the grocery. Together.

“She told me that she wishes she had photos of herself doing everyday things with her kids. She validated the fact that a simple grocery trip is hard. She told me that what I do matters. She doesn’t miss what made the days hard, but she misses what made them sweet.”

The woman took the photo. It shows Wolfe smiling.

“I will always cherish this picture and the message that came with it,” she adds.

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Wolfe’s post has been liked more than 150,000 times. She’s thrilled that it’s been shared around the world.

“It’s so fun to see how far the encouragement from one kind stranger has reached!” she tells Mamamia.

The thousands of comments on the post show that the stranger’s words have really struck a chord with mums.

“I’m crying,” wrote one woman. “Because I’m hormonal and pregnant with number four and grocery shopping is HARD. It is so special when people are nice instead of judgey.”

“I’m bawling because I can relate to the older woman,” wrote another.

“I will start doing this as well!” added another. “The struggle is real and the smallest gesture can change a whole day.”

Has anyone ever done something like this for you before? What did it mean to you?