When I saw a child whose shoe had been hidden, I couldn't help but do my consulting job. (Creative Awards / Essay Category)

When you go to pick up your child at after-school care and see them wearing only one indoor shoe, what goes through your mind?

Some of you might have that image pop into your head in an instant.

That's right.
It's incredibly miserable.

Naturally, since there is only one shoe, they are walking around with one foot in a sock.

I wonder if there is any sight more heartbreaking than that?

What if it were your own young child?

What if someone had hidden it?

What is your blood pressure at right now?

◇ ◇ ◇

That day, the forecast called for rain in the evening, so I interrupted my work to pick them up early.

I called out to the after-school staff to have my child brought out. Since the signs of rain were already strong, I wanted them to come out quickly.

It seemed they were in the library, so it would take a little time to get there.

“So-and-so lost their indoor shoe,”
another child at the facility said to me as I waited aimlessly.

Lost their indoor shoe—?

Is that even possible?

After a while, an older woman who seemed to be the head of the facility appeared, bringing my child along.

The very image of the one-sock tragedy.

The head said, “We looked for it, but we couldn't find it.”

“Oh, really?”

—How would you respond to this?

◇ ◇ ◇

“I see, that's a problem... Maybe someone took it by mistake. Shall we wait and see for a while...?”

I think this is the model answer, or rather, the answer that reads the room.

I don't read the room.
To be precise, I can come up with many answers that don't read the room.

At my level, I can choose from “three answers that read the room + 97 answers that don't.”

The answer I chose was this:
“...Usually, would only one shoe go missing?”

Upon hearing this, the head reacted.
“That's true. If someone had taken one by mistake, there should be one left over. But there are no such shoes...”

I sensed it from this. The head was aware of something. It was fine to raise the level of not reading the room.

One shouldn't lightly suspect others.
It's childish to suspect young children.
It's better to leave children's problems to the people on the scene.

I don't care about any of that.

“Someone hid this.”
“W-well, that's true...”
The head didn't try to hide the look on her face.

This reaction from the person who knows the atmosphere of the scene best.
The problem was confirmed.

◇ ◇ ◇

How much was my blood boiling?

To be honest, it was about 35 degrees Celsius.
It was a very lukewarm bath.

Why, you ask?

The person involved didn't care at all.

Looking back on my own childhood, if I had been put in this situation, I would have felt miserable, sad, and would have been sobbing.

If that had been the case, I could have been angry.

However, my child didn't change their expression and said, 'It's a hassle, let's just go home,' acting as if nothing had happened.

Are they a psychopath?

Given that situation, my mind switched into a calm consulting mode.

Due to my career background, I have a habit of thinking like a consultant in neutral situations.

If we go home with only one indoor shoe, what should we do tomorrow?

I started to worry about the practical side of things.
I wanted to ask what to do in a normal way.

There's no point in asking the after-school care staff, so it has to be the homeroom teacher.

'Shall we go to the staff room?'
I decided to take my child to the staff room.

I wanted to ask about the operation for tomorrow in the case of having only one indoor shoe. This was the high-priority mission.

Since it was certain that it had been hidden, I would share that information as well.

To solve a problem, you must firstdefine and share the problemamong the stakeholders.

Because a problem that doesn't exist cannot be solved.

Fortunately, the homeroom teacher was there.
I opened the door to the staff room.

◇ ◇ ◇

'Please explain the situation in detail.'
I was meeting this teacher for the first time, but she was an enthusiastic and reliable woman in her mid-career.

She looked at my child, not me, and asked the child. People like this are trustworthy.

'Um, um...'
My child explained, albeit haltingly.

With the homeroom teacher leading the way, we headed back to the after-school care center.

It turned out that two of my child's erasers had also been stolen.

The problem had escalated.
The homeroom teacher was driven by a sense of justice.

Thinking this situation called for it, I turned up the level of being oblivious to the social atmosphere.
"Even if it's just an eraser, it's still a proper theft."
The teacher nodded with a bitter expression.

"Erasers are cheap things, but they are stealing our peace of mind and our time."
I even went as far as to say something like Michael Ende's 'Momo'.

Adults bumping into each other at the after-school care center.

Information was flying back and forth.

Surprisingly, the indoor shoes had been found.
After we headed to the staff room, someone involved had searched for them again.

They had been hidden in the girls' restroom, apparently.
The malice was laid bare.

My child pointed to the back of the after-school center and said, "I think it's that kid."

Wait, you know who the culprit is?

"Actually, things like this have happened several times before, but since we didn't have any evidence, we couldn't ask clearly."

So there was a kid who seemed to be a repeat offender!

The supervisor's words and actions all made sense now.
Did they know almost everything?

◇ ◇ ◇

From here on out, it's not my place. It's time to wrap things up.

Ah... I've spent so much time on this.
Even though I had work to finish.

Since the indoor shoes were safely returned, I said, "Please let me know if you find out anything else," and decided to head home.

I wasn't that angry, but I did say, "I am angry."

It was pouring rain outside.

"My eraser is gone..."

While getting hit by the rain together, we headed to a 100-yen shop in the opposite direction of our house.

While pushing my bicycle by hand and getting pelted by the torrential rain, I finally started to get a bit annoyed, thinking, "That jerk..."

"Dad, are you okay getting wet?" my child, who was also soaking wet, asked with concern.

I was glad I took action for this kind child.

"Yeah, thanks. We should have brought a folding umbrella."

◇ ◇ ◇

I wasn't the only one who took action.

After I got home, I received a call from the supervisor.

They had gathered the courage to ask that child.
They admitted to hiding the shoes and even told them where the eraser was hidden.

They said they would talk to the parents about this immediately.
That's for the best. It's better to separate that dark behavior from the child before it becomes a part of them.

Later, through my wife, I heard that the people involved were grateful.

Oh, really?
I was worried they might think of me as someone who just created more work.

I don't know who said it, but it seems the assessment was that I was "a rare person these days."

Is that so...? I wonder what that means?

Apparently, people usually just wait and see for a while. They put off the problem.

No, problems must be broken down.

Problems include things that can be solved immediately, things that take time, and things that are completely unknown.

Whether it's a company or a school, there are many "things that can be solved immediately," and if you put those off, the tasks become even more complex.

That is something I have learned through my consulting work.

And this time, what I "tried to solve immediately" was the operation for when there is only one pair of indoor shoes.

I never thought about solving the whole thing.

Who would have thought that by trying to solve the "one pair problem," things would go so well in one fell swoop.

I would like to take it positively and think that my attitude toward facing the problem was conveyed to those involved.

……………………

A few days later, when I went to pick up my child from the after-school center, the folding umbrella was gone this time.

That's the one I lent them!

Forget it.

The consultant gave up on thinking.

▼ Here is the kind of person who wrote this article ▼

▼ I write both essays and creative works ▼