My 9YO has been wetting the bed after the divorce and wears Goodnites. It’s been a rough road for both of us, honestly. My son, Mason, used to be the kid who would run outside to play the second the sun came up, but lately, he’s been a shell of himself. The divorce wasn’t a loud, crashing disaster; it was a slow, quiet fading away of the life he knew, and his body decided to process that stress in the middle of the night. We’ve been trying everything, but for now, the Goodnites are the only thing that give him a little bit of security when the lights go out.
Last week at the grocery checkout, he panicked: “No, Mom, please stop!” I was tired, distracted by my mental to-do list, and I hadn’t noticed his classmate, a bright-eyed girl named Sadie, standing right behind us with her dad. I’d already put the Goodnites on the conveyor belt, the bright packaging practically screaming for attention under the harsh supermarket lights. Mason’s face went from pale to a deep, painful scarlet in a matter of seconds. He looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole, and my heart just shattered right there next to the candy bars.
Sadie didn’t say anything, but she definitely saw. She stared at the package, then at Mason, her eyes wide with that curious, unblinking gaze that kids have. Mason didn’t wait for me to pay; he turned and bolted out the sliding glass doors to the car. I fumbled with my card, feeling like the world’s worst mother for being so careless with his dignity. When I got to the car, he was curled in a ball in the backseat, refusing to look at me, his hood pulled tight over his head.
He skipped school for days after that. Every morning, he’d wake up and tell me his stomach hurt or his head was spinning, and I knew it was the weight of the embarrassment. I didn’t push him because I could see the genuine terror in his eyes at the thought of facing the playground whispers. On the third day, I tried to tell him that everybody has secrets and that Sadie probably already forgot, but he just stared at the wall. He was convinced his life was over, and as a parent, there is no bigger helplessness than watching your child drown in shame.
On the 5th day, the doorbell rang. Mason was on the sofa, picking at a piece of toast, and he froze. His eyes went wide, and he looked at the door like it was a monster about to burst through. I told him to stay put and walked to the entryway, expecting a delivery or maybe a neighbor asking about the mail. I pulled the heavy oak door open and looked down, but no one was there.
At the door was a pack. It wasn’t a pack of Goodnites, though—it was a large, brightly colored gift bag with a stuffed dinosaur sticking out of the top. I brought it inside, and Mason watched from a distance as I pulled out a small, handwritten note. It was written in messy, purple marker, and the letters were slightly wobbly. I cleared my throat and started to read it out loud, my voice catching on the very first sentence.
“Hi Mason, I saw you at the store,” the note began. “I wanted to tell you that I have to wear special pajamas sometimes too because my brain forgets to wake me up. My dad says it’s because my heart is busy growing.” I stopped reading for a second, feeling a huge lump form in my throat. Mason slowly climbed off the sofa and walked toward me, his eyes fixed on the purple ink.
The note went on to say that Sadie had been missing school because she was embarrassed too, and she thought maybe they could be “secret pajama friends.” She had included a pack of her favorite stickers and a comic book she thought he would like. Mason took the note from my hand, reading it over and over again, and I saw his shoulders finally drop from his ears. The shame that had been suffocating him for five days seemed to evaporate in the light of knowing he wasn’t the only one.
But here is where the story took a turn I didn’t see coming. I decided to walk over to Sadie’s house that afternoon to thank her dad for the incredibly kind gesture. They lived only two streets away, in a house with a blue door and a swing set in the front yard. When her dad, a soft-spoken man named David, answered the door, he looked a little surprised to see me. I started thanking him for the note and the gift bag, but he just tilted his head in confusion.
“I didn’t send a gift bag,” David said, leaning against the doorframe. “Sadie told me about seeing you guys at the store, and she was worried about Mason, but we haven’t left the house all day.” My heart did a weird little flip-flop in my chest. If it wasn’t from Sadie, then who had left that bag on our doorstep? David called Sadie to the door, and she confirmed that while she wanted to talk to Mason, she hadn’t written any note.
We went back to my house and looked at the gift bag again, searching for any other clues. That’s when I noticed a small logo on the bottom of the stuffed dinosaur—it was from a specific local charity that helps families going through difficult transitions. I called the number on the tag, and after being transferred a few times, I finally got through to a woman who sounded like she had been waiting for my call.
But the bag hadn’t come from a classmate at all; it had come from the cashier at the grocery store. Her name was Elena, and she had seen the whole interaction at the checkout line. She told me she had been through a brutal divorce herself a few years back, and her own son had struggled with the exact same thing as Mason. She had felt so much empathy for that little boy in the red hoodie that she used her break to look up our address from our loyalty card info—which was technically a huge breach of protocol—to send a message of hope.
She had written the note in “kid handwriting” because she didn’t want Mason to feel like an adult was pitying him; she wanted him to feel like he had a peer who understood. She had even reached out to Sadie’s dad separately to make sure it was okay to mention her name, but a miscommunication meant he hadn’t realized the bag was actually being delivered that day. Elena risked her job just to make sure a nine-year-old boy didn’t feel like a freak.
I went back to the store the next day to find her, and when I saw her behind the register, I couldn’t help but give her a hug across the counter. She whispered that she just couldn’t bear to see that look on his face, a look she knew all too well from her own living room. It was a reminder that sometimes the people who see us at our most vulnerable are the ones who are best equipped to help us heal. She wasn’t just a cashier; she was a guardian angel in a polyester vest.
Mason went back to school the following Monday. He was still nervous, but he walked into that classroom with his head held a little higher. He and Sadie actually did become “secret pajama friends,” though they never talked about it in front of the other kids. They had a silent understanding, a little bond built on the things they kept hidden from the rest of the world. It turned out that the grocery store disaster wasn’t the end of his social life; it was the beginning of his first real, deep friendship.
I learned that we spend so much time trying to hide our struggles, thinking that perfection is the only way to be accepted. But it’s actually our flaws and our “messy” parts that allow us to connect with others on a level that actually matters. Mason didn’t need a perfect life; he just needed to know he wasn’t alone in his imperfect one. And I learned that as a mother, I don’t always have to have the answers; sometimes, I just have to be the one who lets the kindness of strangers in the door.
We often think the world is a cold, judgmental place, especially when we’re going through something as isolating as a divorce. But there are Elenas and Sadies everywhere, people who are just waiting for a chance to tell you that it’s okay to be human. Compassion doesn’t always come from where you expect it, and sometimes a “disaster” at the grocery checkout is just the universe’s way of bringing people together.
I’m so grateful for that purple marker note and the stuffed dinosaur. They saved my son from a dark hole of shame and taught me a lesson about grace that I’ll never forget. If you’re going through a hard time and feel like everyone is judging your “Goodnites,” just remember that someone out there is wearing them too, and they’re rooting for you.
If this story reminded you that kindness can come from the most unexpected places, please share and like this post. You never know who is struggling with a secret today and needs to hear that they aren’t alone. Would you like me to help you find a way to reach out to someone who might be going through a quiet struggle of their own?
