One mum has shared her first day of school hack to help nervous children and we think it's absolutely genius.
My little boy, my only boy is starting school this week and never mind him - I'm anxious as hell.
He is soft, gentle and ever so sweet and I know the new environment will have a huge impact on him so I was thrilled to come across this little hack.
Shared almost two years ago, Louise Mallett posted this gorgeous first day of school trick to help nervous children known as the "hug button" and it has been helping anxious children settle in school when they are missing their parents ever since.
In her post, which was originally shared in the parenting Facebook group The Motherload, Mallett explained how her little boy was nearing his first full day of school following a series of settling in morning sessions and was feeling rather emotional about it.
"So my littlest baby had his first all-dayer at school today, having been in for a couple of mornings settling in sessions."
The mum of three decided to do something about it and came up with the idea of a hug button, a button drawn in the shape of a heart which acts like a hug when pressed.
"I could tell he was feeling a little emotional this morning so we had a chat and came up with the idea of having a heart each and if we pressed it sent a hug to the other one (he said he cried as he missed me on his first half day last week) it totally worked," she said.
"I drew a heart on both our hands and gave him a spare one on his arm in case the one on his hand wore off, we "charged" them by holding hands on the way to school and when I picked him up I said did you get my hugs and he happily said yep."
"He also said "I pressed it for a long time mummy but I didn't cry" so I said "ahh that will be that big squeeze I got, did you get my big squeeze back?" and he said yep".
The post has been shared thousands of times across social media and parents across the globe are loving the simplicity of the hug button.
One wrote: "So simple, so genius. Works like a charm with my four-year-old (and now his classmates are asking for a “button” as well...). Thank you so much, Louise."
While another said: "Thank you so much for sharing this, it worked with my four-year-old daughter here in the Netherlands."
And since the going viral, Mallett has updated her post with some very exciting news.
She has turned the hug button into a rhyming story to help children to understand the concept and she is currently looking for a publisher.
"I hope to one day be able to let you know where you can purchase the book from for your little ones," she concluded.
