One of the hardest things that I can understand being a parent is how involved my girls are in video games. Growing up I wasn't huge on games, I was much more interested by reading and playing outside. Sure, I had a video game system as a kid, but it did not appeal to me as it does to my girls.

Like some other parents around the world, I fought endlessly with my girls about computer games. My girls were obsessive about them; they always aspired to have the coolest games console and also the newest games, although Barbie video games were their most favorite. I can remember when my youngest received Barbie: The Island Princess for the DS on her birthday one year. When she opened that Barbie video game, none of the other presents mattered. Together with her new Barbie game on hand, off she left for her room where she remained for what seemed hours.

I used to be literally in awe over this strange hold that computer games seemed to have over the kids. I had read all the warnings in parents' magazines that discuss how bad online games were for the children. I had even seen numerous reports in the news debating identical things and how several studies had been done. With this not so great news about games, I was determined to eliminate them inside my house. I grounded my girls from video games for many days at any given time, sent them outside to play in the sun. I signed them up for dance lessons, took them over to the park, in other words, I exhausted myself aiming to distract them from computer games they seemed to love a lot.

As you can imagine this battle against online games in my house was exhausting. It seemed like regardless of what I did I really could not change my girls' minds over games. I'm not really the kind of parent who gives in to her children or am I the type to give up while I want something. However, it seemed like this battle against games would definitely defeat me. So, rather than trying to fight their obvious fascination with Barbie video games as well as the pleasure these games gave them, I decided to take a closer look.

I grabbed my daughters DS and her Barbie Groom and Glam Pups game, the most recent favorite Barbie video game, and started playing it. I probably got about a few minutes in the video game and was at a total loss in regards to what to do. No surprise that video games still baffled me being an adult. Rather than chuck the game down in disgust I called my daughter to the room to help me out. The surprise on her face when she saw me playing her video game was priceless.

My daughter sat down with me and patiently explained to me a few things I was supposed to do. Before I knew it I started having a lot fun, standing there giggling and laughing with my daughter, and I was even tinkering with a video game. My daughter and I probably sat there for two hours, before I realized that it was way past time to get dinner on the table. I quickly jumped up to go cook dinner, but seeing the look on my own daughters face made me stop short.

Rather than just rushing out towards the kitchen, I sat down to chat with my daughter. My daughter was confused. She couldn't see why I'd stop playing video games together with her to go prepare dinner because we were having a great time. Oh how nice it really is to be young! Instead of just leaving her puzzled, I explained to her that yes I was having fun, however needed to take care of my responsibilities as well, basically if I didn't prepare dinner, nobody would eat. Furthermore, I reassured her that after dinner we were able to sit down and play a few more video games.

The thing is by taking time to figure out my kids' pleasure in video games, I was capable of seeing the things I had not witnessed before. Video games may very well be fun, far more fun than reading a magazine. However, I still was on a pursuit to curb exactly how much the children played video games. Now I understood why they liked them. I had been even enjoying them. All the same, that doesn't mean I supported my children playing them nonstop, I knew that boundaries had to be set.

In talking with my husband, who probably enjoyed computer games a lot more than my kids did, we decided to start a family game night, only we wanted to start two nights per week. Two times a week after dinner my daughters would go pick their favorite Barbie video game, which obviously each had her favorite. My youngest daughter loved the Barbie: Island Princess video game, while my older daughter preferred Barbie Groom and Glam Pups. We all took turns selecting the games for family night. And, in doing so, we all benefited from spending more time together.

What I learned, being a parent out of this experience is the fact that attempting to ban something usually just isn't worth the battle, I favor to save my battles for the really big things. By taking the time to listen to the kids and open up my mind, I figured that all the studies were exactly that a bunch of studies, only I understand my kids, and only I can decide if video games are hurting the children. Now I have come to realize that games are fantastic, they even can be experienced together as a family. Therefore, although we do not fight over whether video games must be played. We all do have issues with moderating the length of time is allocated to games. Now I won't lose that battle. Just about everything needs moderation!