"perhaps you’ll upset your kids if you throw away the cookies" is given as an example of the situation being outside your control. (Thankfully this author is apparently still slaving away in grad school and probably doesn't yet have time for this ruinous approach to raising kids.) Applying the same strategy to that situation is simple: Just don't let the kids know there are cookies in the house! Or better yet, don't buy cookies (i.e. the same answer as for your earlier 20-something solo non-kid-having Netflixing self).