My kids love video games. Really, really love them. In particular, my older son is intensely into Mario Bros games. Classic, new – if it’s Mario, he loves it.

I like video games. I enjoy them and was hard-core into a couple of computer games as a kid, but I’d usually prefer to read a book or watch a movie.

But one thing my kids and I all have in common is a love of music. In fact, a need for music. None of us do well with silence. If things are too quiet, the kids will drive each other (and me) to despair by competing to make noises or sing loudly.

In fact, I realized that when my kids are getting spun up and dysregulated that often music helps. It provides that sensory input we’re all craving with a minimum of annoyance.

The obvious question is, “What to play?” I’m a fan of classic rock, folk, punk, jazz, and 90s alternative, but my kids have Opinions on music, just like everything else. And when you’re trying to get your kids to emotionally regulate is not the time to impose your tastes on them. Despite my initial meh opinion, they wanted video game music.

So video game music it was.

But at some point, I came across a YouTube video of jazz covers of music from the Mario Bros games. It even had an adorably stylized still life of key symbols from the games, like a mushroom. That opened a whole world of video game complications and covers, from “jazzy jingles” to orchestral covers to rock guitar. There’s a video game music compilation for every type of music you could like, with many Super Mario Galaxy pieces sounding like they’re straight out of a Tchaikovsky ballet. My kids weren’t going to go for Miles Davis or Dizzy Gilespie, but the connection to Nintendo was enough. One of the groups we follow, the 8 Bit Big Band, even won a Grammy for best arrangement! (Seriously, if you like jazz, they’re astoundingly good.)

What could have become yet another point of disagreement – my music taste versus my kids – has become something we can share and enjoy together. And despite it seeming impossible at first, neither of us had to totally capitulate to the other’s interests to make it happen. While there’s still disagreement, we can find some common ground.