Feeding a kid

Kids. You love them, but if you have to make them do something it may become ugly :).
My kid, 3+, is not a big "eater". Usually making him finish the meal is a problem.
Lots of "please eat", "finish the meal", etc. etc. were driving me and my wife mad. Well, I would be happy if he ate something - he knows if he is hungry or not - but my wife wanted him to eat a full meal every time. So, almost every meal it was "yelling time".
One day, in a flash of inspiration I had an idea. Well, the solution is nothing magical, and I bet many use it, but it still is a good application of a strategy - that's why I present it here.
It has two parts.
1. I told the kid that the sweets after the meal are a "dessert". And dessert is what you eat only if you have finished most of the meal.
2. I is up to you to finish the meal or not. I am fine if you just ate one spoonful. You don't want to eat - you are free to walk away from the table. But no dessert - it is only "after" the meal!
Well, I was surprised myself - it worked like magic! Even, if he eats veeeerrrrryyy slowly, I now tell him: "you eat way too slowly - the meal time is over - do you want me to take the plate away?" "Oh, sorry, no, you didn't eat enough to get the dessert!" You should see the way he digs into the plate then :)!
So, now the meals are much more pleasant, and quiet!

Strategies:
"Besiege Wei to save Zhao" is used here.
To "defend Zhao" in terms of the strategy - it was next to impossible to make him finish the meal.
"Besiege Wei" (attack something dear) - if he doesn't finish, there will be no dessert.

Psychologically, since it was turned into a rule - "dessert is something that comes only after you finished most of the meal" - is not a punishment if he doesn't get it. And it is not personal, as it is "if you do not finish, I will punish you by not giving you dessert!" Nobody is hurt, everybody is happy!
And, an additional bonus - if he says "no, I do not want to eat, never mind the dessert" - then you know that he really doesn't want to eat and can take it easy!

"smoking on watch" - example of "besiege Wei.." and "create something.."

The story happened during a training course in the army.
The course itself was a some variety of the basic training for the 30yrs+ and medical staff so it lasted just 2 weeks.
Anyway, towards the end of the course, several guys were caught smoking cigarettes on watch. That was actually a pretty usual practice on the camp. What was unusual - that the camp commander decided to have them tried for it. After the guys from one squad were tried - everybody was stunned. Well, everybody expected them to get punished by some form of the kitchen duty or toilet-scrubbing. But they were heavily fined instead. On the next day the trial was to take place in the other squad.
In the morning one of the guys of the second squad approached his sarge and asked him politely if the sarge was aware that the whole affair was not that fair - anybody could've been caught since it was a regular practice and there were no punishments for it before. The guy went on and said: "look, people are really upset with this stuff and there are all kinds of talking, but I bet you would not want people to refuse to be sworn in over this (the ceremony was to take place the next day), do you?"
The sarge left without a word, but the trial set for the afternoon was canceled. In the second squad nobody was tried or punished!

Two strategies were used here:
1. "Attack Wei to save Zhao"(see the definition):
It would've been impossible to defend once being on trial, but here something else - very important for the sergeant suddenly came under attack - the ceremony! He preferred to cancel the court altogether lest risk the danger of somebody refusing to be sworn in.
2. "create something out of nothing"(see the definition):
Actually, just a hint on the refusal to be sworn in was used - there were no actual talks about that in the squad.