Sometimes the answer is right in front of you and you don't realize until you try!
"They don't shape chicken nuggets like dinosaurs for nothing!"
What gimmicks are working for us?
Want your kids to drink more water? Get them their own "special" reusable water bottle. We went from wasted glasses of water all over the house to using their own water bottles. They can't get enough and now I'm constantly refilling.
Want your kids to eat the apple skin? Get an apple slicer. It's a fancy round apple cutter that perfectly slices the apple and removes the core. When my kids saw how it worked and how neatly and perfectly shaped the apple slices were they never again asked me to take the skin off (which they claimed to hate). Now they eat the skin and don't complain.
Want your kids to offer to do chores? Get a duster buster (handheld vacuum)! I thought they were a thing of the past until Santa brought one for our kids a few years back. Now they fight over who gets to vacuum up the dog hair and clean up with it. It comes in handy for so much more, but for the kids to have a small vacuum I can trust them to get out, use and then put back is absolutely priceless!
Want your kids to eat a healthy dessert? Buy freezer pop molds, I prefer the silicone kind. I was amazed that a frozen organge juice pop or left over frozen smoothie pop would suffice for dessert. So instead of them wanting a sugary or chocolately treat they now are content with frozen juice popsicles!
These are just a few of my favorite gimmicks. I could go on. Ultimately they'll grow out of the gimmicks and won't even realize they were duped into liking or doing what we wanted for them.
So, do you have any similar stories about things that worked for you that were right in front of you all along?