The one thing every woman does before you step foot inside her car.

Have you ever met a woman who hasn’t apologised for the state of her car before you step into it?

We definitely haven’t.

It’s often said that a woman’s car is just an extension of her handbag. And just like a handbag, you can tell a lot about a person by what’s in their car.

MM: Please describe your family.

HOLLY: There’s me, my partner Brent and our two ginger kids, Matilda, who’s four, and Billy, who’s nearly two.

MM: Please describe your role at iVillage.

HOLLY: I’m the editor of iVillage, the Mamamia network’s parenting site. I run a team of four and decide the daily content of the site, who does what and how every day will go.

Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by

Nissan X-TRAIL. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100 per cent authentic and written in their own words.

MM: What is the most interesting part of your work day?

HOLLY: There are so many things. I particularly like our morning editorial meetings, where the team discuss and decide what post we’re going to run on the site every day. There’s a lot of, shall we call it, lively debate about what the best stories are. We’re always trying to get a fine balance between fun and informative, newsy and helpful, and most importantly lots of parents’ voices telling their stories of how they deal with parenting. I love it.

MM: What is the one thing you look forward to every day?

HOLLY:  I love my job, but of course it’s the time I get with my kids, whether it’s in the morning when my daughter comes into bed and asks me all sorts of weird questions about the world – where do monkeys come from, mummy? Or reading books to Billy at night when he’s all clean smelling and snuggly in his pyjamas. And then, the half hour after they go to bed, when I get to have a glass of wine with Brent and share war stories. Oops, that’s not one thing.

MM: What do you use your car for the most? (For example, getting groceries, taking the kids to day care/school.)

HOLLY: We use our car the most for driving the kids to and from preschool/daycare, to play dates and friend’s houses, on weekend trips and for the big grocery shop.

MM: What are the top 3 things you need in the car to make it through the drive with your kids?

HOLLY:  Ha. Kids’ CDs for the stereo. We do a LOT of singing along to the Wiggles and Justine Clarke in the car. Colouring books and stickers for M on long journeys. Snacks, water and a sense of humour. Again, too many.*

MM: What is the one thing in the car that you need just for you?

HOLLY: A good mirror. We’re always running behind schedule, so if Brent’s driving, I’m always putting my make-up on in the passenger seat, doing my hair while singing Do The Propeller. I think they call it multi-tasking.

MM: If someone got in your car, what would they find in there that would either surprise or shock them?

HOLLY: I’m always finding things in the car that surprise and shock me. Like chocolate wrappers and pie cases! I never eat that kind of stuff, but when Brent and the kids are in the car without me, there’s like some kind of dietary cone of silence at play. I’m always picking up bits of rubbish and am like, ‘Um, when did you lot go to Maccas?’ That, 25 half empty water bottles and swimming noodles in the boot. You really never know when you might need a swimming noodle.

MM: What is the one thing you need from a car? (E.g. space for your kids not to kill each other in the back seat).

HOLLY: Definitely space. Before we upgraded to a proper family car, we were still all stuck in my little single-girl hatch back and it was getting very unfunny. We practically had to fold the kids in half to get them into their seats, could never go away because we couldn’t fit in the small city of stuff you need to move kids from A-to-B and our daughter couldn’t straighten her legs without whacking the driver’s seat. A spacious car that’s still easy for me to park is THE holy grail of family wagons.

MM: What is your policy of food and drinks in the car? Has it changed since you had kids?

HOLLY: Look, you could say that. Since there’s always snack wrappers, Kruskit crumbs, water bottles and apple cores somewhere in the car, you could say the food and drink policy is lax. I have learnt though, not to give Billy bananas in the car. He’ll take two bites and then spend the rest of the journey quietly working banana mush through every fold and crease of his car seat. Lots of fun to clean. Snacks are a necessity on any kind of road trip for peace-keeping purposes. The UN should try more snacks at high-level negotiations.

MM: What is the best thing about driving your kids around in the car?

HOLLY: Talking to them. Any parent will tell you, you have some random conversations in the car, including some of the big questions. We drove past a graveyard and had to get into the meaning of life and death the other day. You never quite know how the conversation’s going to go, but it’s always interesting.

MM: What is the worst thing about driving your kids around in the car?

HOLLY: When they don’t want to be in the car any more. Kids whinging when you can’t stop or make the journey flash by any faster is pretty much water torture. Snacks. Again.

MM: If you had to give one bit of advice to a new mum with kids and driving kids in the car, what would it be?

HOLLY: Whatever it takes to keep them happy. Babies in cars are always disastrous because they cry at every traffic light, but every parent works out what they have to do to get through. Try not to stress, turn the kid’s music off as soon as they’ve fallen asleep and always have a game of I-spy in your head. And snacks. Lots of snacks.

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for, to take a look inside …

What kind of ridiculous things do you keep in your car?

All-new Nissan X-TRAIL – Family Proof

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