A missing toy can hold a whole day’s need for something familiar.

Small objects sometimes carry more than their size suggests, especially for a child. The toy is not only a toy but the one steady thing in a day full of new rooms, strange voices and decisions made by other people. When it goes missing, what is lost is the anchor rather than the plastic.

When someone is upset about something that looks minor, ask what the thing was doing for them. Help look, and take the search seriously. Keep track of your own small anchors too, since the day one goes missing you will want it found.