A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three year old girl in her cart. As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother said to her, “No.” The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, “Now Brenda, we just have five of the aisles left to go through – don’t be upset. It won’t be long now.”
Soon, they came to the candy aisle and the little girl began to shout for candy. When told she couldn’t have any, she began to cry. The mother said, “there, there, Brenda, don’t cry – only two more aisles to go and then we’ll be checking out.”
When they got to the checkout stand, the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there’d be no gum purchased. The mother said serenely, “Brenda, just control yourself, we’ll be through this check out stand in 5 minutes.”
The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. “I couldn’t help noticing how patient you were with little Brenda,” he began.
The mother replied, “I’m Brenda – my little girl’s name is Ashley.”