National "Hug Your Kids Day". Find an Activity in Your Area

The hug. A simple expression of affection. However, if you recall the last time you received a genuine hug, you know the benefits are nothing short of restorative. Michelle Nichols, creator of the first ever "National Hug Your Kids Day," believes that the benefits of the hug are boundless. She is the founder of the Hug Your Kids Today! project. She is also the author of Hug Your Kids Today! 5 Lessons for Every Working Parent.

Michelle Nichols is a wife and the mother of three. Some of you may be familiar with her "Savvy Selling" column which ran for six years on BusinessWeek.com. I had the opportunity to speak with Michelle about her new projects and how she came to be singing the praises of the hug.

It was during her time with BusinessWeek that she says she began to feel what can only be described as a spiritual tug on her life. "I began to have this strong feeling in my gut that there was something else I should be doing. I asked what I was supposed to be doing but the only answer I received back was 'I'm not going to tell you until you leave BusinessWeek'." Nichols took a leap of faith and left.

"It was a little embarrassing, well not embarrassing but uncomfortable, to be leaving, what appeared to be a great gig, without any concrete plans. People kept asking me what I was going to do and all I could say was that I didn't know."

Shortly after leaving BusinessWeek she found her answer. "I was cleaning out my office, in preparation, for what, I didn't know when I ran across some photos of some billboards that had been put up in honor of my son, Mark." Nichols' young son Mark developed brain cancer and died suddenly in July of 1998. Michelle and her husband had put up billboards along two major Houston highways. The billboards read "Hug your kids today. We wish we could. Mark Nichols 1989-1998." It was from there that the Hug Your Kids Today! Project was born.

"My goal initially was to just remind people that something as simple as a hug can have a profound impact on their lives and lessen many of the stresses they face." As an in-demand speaker and columnist, Nichols understands those stresses. "Today the sexy buzz phrase is "work-life balance." I say forget work-life balance, it's the wrong conversation. We say family first and work a close second. Work is your livelihood and but family is your life. If you lose your livelihood, eventually you will find another. When the life of a loved one is lost, you can't get that back."

"Having dealt with the loss of my son aided me in finding the focus for the project. Our target demographic is professional working parents with school age kids. This is not about parents staying at home versus working out of the home. Parents can be in the home all day and still not connect with their kids while others can go to work everyday and have a quality relationship."

Nichols' recently released book Hug Your Kids Today!Five Key Lessons for Every Working Parent operates as the project's handbook. "It outlines our goals, our purpose for being and what we're about. It's about life, faith and love. Hugging our kids; showing them we love them is a privilege. Why overlook a privilege?"

"National Hug Your Kids Day" will be celebrated July 21, 2008. "We have a number of events planned. The announcement is going out over several of Major League Baseball's Jumbotrons. The Boys and Girls Club of Reno is doing a big launch party. Kids are separated from their parents for any number of reasons. We just want to show that a hug can start to transcend those separations." For information about all of the events please go to http://www.hugyourkidstoday.com/events.asp.

"Our message is global; it crosses all cultural, geographic and religious boundaries. All people love their kids. People in Iraq love their kids. People in Greenland love their kids. In fact, in a couple of years, we are going to try for the "Guinness Book of World Records" for National Hug Your Kids Day. We hope to set the record for most parents hugging their kids. We are hoping to partner with corporate sponsors to bring even more attention to our cause."

"Our next step is to bring this concept into the corporate arena as a retention tool for key employees. Many key employees have children and they are being faced with the dilemma of whether they are going to leave their position to spend more time with their children. The handbook can be a tool to help families before things spin out of control."

For more information about the Hug Your Kids Today! project, please go to www.hugyourkidstoday.com or contact Michelle Nichols by phone at (877) 352-9684 or via email at hugs@hugyourkidstoday.com.