Once you and your partner become parents it becomes exponentially more difficult to find time to be together as a couple. Babysitters are expensive and the scheduling alone can cause your head to explode. As any normal couple, David and I have tried to be creative in carving out that essential time that is needed for a happy marriage. One of our favorite things to do is video games. Yes girls, I’m telling you to embrace that video game box that sits in your living room. It is not a source of marital discord but an undiscovered device to build relationships and unexpected connections.

David and I have had some of our best ‘dates’ sitting in our living room playing Lego Star Wars – David is Han Solo, I am Princess Leia. We must work TOGETHER to solve puzzles, fight bad guys and reach our goals. We’ve laughed and chided each other through rounds of Tiger Woods Golf. There have been times when I’ve handed David my controller because I can’t defeat a specific enemy or because I can’t finish a certain task. He doesn’t make fun of me, but sweetly takes over. These interactions during games are just an extension of our real-world relationship. Each of us doing tasks we do well and helping out the other during challenges.

In order to make these game-nights work you must find a game that appeals to both of you. Here are my recommendations:

1.) Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones: David and I love this Lego series of games. They are fun and as stated earlier we get to work together on the same team at the same time. Plus, they are “family-friendly” and so sometimes we let the kids hang out and watch.

2.) Sports: We like sports games that aren’t hard core (games like NFL Madden can be a bit too involved for girls) things like tennis, golf, etc can bring out the competitive edge in both of you and be fun. The Wii has a lot of great sport games, but the one we have liked the most was Tiger Woods PGA golf on Xbox.

3.) Driving Games: There are plenty of driving games, but ones like Mario Kart are silly enough that you won’t devolve into an argument about the last speeding ticket somebody received.

4.) Guitar Hero: Personally, I suck at this game. However, I know plenty of friends who love playing this with their spouse. David is musically trained and I’m tone deaf – it isn’t pretty when we play together.

I know many of you feel like this is a world where you are not welcome but this is not true. I think you will be surprised at the variety of games available and the odds that you will find one that appeals to you is high. However, you need to go into this venture understanding that being good at video games takes patience and practice. Guys, be patient with your girls and the pay off will be an inexpensive home-date that builds communication and team work.