For moms who have lost a child, Mother's Day can be bittersweet. Ginny Callaway, author of A Friend in Grief: Simple Ways to Help, has first-hand experience dealing with such tragedy and has graciously agreed to share her experience. In this poignant and touching blog, you'll find tips on how to reach out to a grieving mom on Mother's Day, and any other day of the year. See below:

I remember the first time someone asked me how many children I had after my 10-year-old daughter Sara Jane had died in a car accident.

My husband David, my 13-year-old son Zeb, and I had gone to a community potluck where we didn’t know a lot of people. I was moving down the buffet line when the nice man next to me casually asked the seemingly innocuous question.

Do you ever look around the car and wonder how the heck our parents handled long car trips without electronics? Books are great, but when you've got a kid who gets carsick, movies can be the difference between a pleasant trip and a steady stream of "are we there yet?" The little pink DVD player my daughter has for road trips has been a lifesaver for my husband and me over the years -- especially when we're in bad traffic and need to cut down on conversation so the driver can concentrate.

But that little magic box is no good to us without a good stock-pile of road trip movies. Need to refresh yours? Here are the family vacation movies you NEED to add to the rotation for upcoming travel:

My wife's clock radio starts blaring at 6:30 every morning just as the kids are slowly stirring from their slumber. The news of the day is usually tame -- weather, politics, business -- but some mornings, it's all tragedy. Hours of it. Tragedy so plainly wrought that I wonder if I shouldn't throw the clock radio out the window.

So how do we talk to kids about this stuff? How do we hide the news when it comes at us from all angles? How do we keep a plugged-in generation in the dark? Should we?

Who buys $10,000 dresses, owns over 60 pairs of shoes, loves room service at five-star hotels, and regularly spends oodles of money on spray tans and hair extensions? Why, the 6-year-old beauty pageant millionaire, of course! Former Toddlers and Tiaras star Isabella Barrett sounds like a holy monster in the making, but she sure is rich. Does all that moola make me wish I'd put my own daughter in pageants? Oh hell no!

Case in point: guess what else little Miss Barrett has had to spend money on?

Blogger Jill Smokler delights and enlightens us with her real mom confessions and honest takes on motherhood every week in her Stir column. So today, in honor of her second book Motherhood Comes Naturally (And Other Vicious Lies) (which is awesome!) (you need to buy this book!) (trust!), we thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peek of some of the gems inside.

Here are 7 of Jill's OWN revelations from her book told in the sweet, refreshing, no-bullshit style we've come to know and love. If you're a mom, you already know this stuff and can laugh your way through in a spirit of camaraderie -- and if you're not, this is required reading. Consider yourself warned.

We had a big win in my house last month. We finally convinced our second grade daughter to try the Ramona Quimby books. She dove in, and she hasn't come up for air yet. Score one for girl power in the book shelves!

I've been a little down in the dumps about the state of children's literature lately -- particularly the message being sent to young girls. The "hot" books that my daughter's classmates are reading all seem to have male characters at the center ... and boys who are jerks to boot (seriously, what do people SEE in this Wimpy Kid character?).

I've taken those books as a challenge. Can I find feminist role models in children's literature, girls I want my daughter to read about and be like?

I’m getting ready to show my age here, but when I was a kid (the key phrase that indicates someone is indeed about to launch into a story that will show their age), I used to rap the molasses outta the lyrics to “Push It.” I loved Salt-n-Pepa anyway, down to my ripped jeans and my replica of their asymmetrical haircuts. I don’t know about them, but mine took a regrettable and absurd amount of time to grow out. So that combo, the fan-dom and the haircut, made me the fourth member of the group in my mind whenever that song came on. Perhaps Salt-Pepa-n-Curry? Or was I more of a Paprika? Either way, I obliviously ooh-baby-baby-edsong  and emphatically ahhh-pushed-it in front of my mama whenever it came on. She never said a word to encourage or put me on ice either way.

My friends and I got together with our kids recently, and a dance party broke out. The song was "Sexy and I Know It," and the kids were going wild. And then something awkward happened. Kids, none of them older than 8, took their shirts off.

None of the moms knew quite what to say. Were our kids just being silly? They're just kids, after all? Or did our kids really know what this song was about?

It's the question we all ask, isn't it? When we're listening to the latest hot song on the radio and the kids are singing along, is it the catchy beat that's getting to them or do they really understand the adult themes of most top 40 hits?

I decided to find out.