Poppy is a bit, shall we say, attached to her “shows.” It’s not unusual for her to ask for “Sesame” or “Easter Beagle” or “Baby Kitty” before she even gets out of bed. I thought I could use this to my advantage in the Battle to Get Poppy to Eat Something Nutritious. So I laid down the gauntlet: “No more shows until you take one bite of fruit.”

That was last Thursday.

The first few days when she asked to watch something I had to remind her, “No fruit, no show.” She responded with fits for about two days, then with “No show.”

While this hasn’t worked exactly as I’d hoped it would, the “no fruit, no show” approach has worked for me. I’d been wanted to cut back on the amount of TV the kids watched, and sticking to the promise/threat I made last week has definitely done that. The television has been on in her presence — it was US Open week, after all — but Poppy hasn’t seen any of her programming in nearly a week. And she’s fine with it. I asked her this morning if she’d like to watch “Sesame Street.” I was prepared to say, “OK then, let’s take a bite of banana!” But it didn’t come to that. She said, “No shows,” and then she went off to play in her room.

That works for me.

Read more Works for Me Wednesday tips and tales at Rocks in My Dryer.