#66 [My Beloved Last-Place Son] Son's Story ⑤

Ready, set, go

The kindergarten sports day had begun

My son, lined up at the starting line for the obstacle course, had a look of anxiety on his face
At the signal, everyone started running at once

My son started running with all his might, too
Obstacle course

The first hurdle was
【Crawling through a large net】
My son reached it first



“Wow, he’s fast”The moment I thought that
for some reason, my son stopped in front of the net
He stood there watching intently

as the other children who came after him
scrambled through under the net
…Hmm? What’s wrong?

After he made sure that one child after another

had finished crawling through,
my son then hurriedly crawled through the net

The second hurdle was
【The balance beam】

Just like with the net,
my son stopped dead in his tracks in front of the balance beam

Even though it wasn't a queue,
he quietly watched the other children climb it

And then,
after there was no one left,
he climbed up with a heave

His pace was so leisurely
that I couldn't help but laugh because it was so cute

Even though he was the first to start,
before I knew it, he finished
in a proud last place

A mom friend next to me said,

“Oh, Shin-chan is always
so slow and clumsy,
what are you doing?”

laughing as if she were exasperated

I let those words drift by, while
I stared at my little son, who was waving at me and smiling from beyond the dust


“You don't have to be first”I whispered in my heart as I hugged him
He chose to watch properly,

wait properly,
and yield properly
It was just that,


but I loved him so much for it