Australia, you were sneaky kids

Brussels sprouts ... eughh! Source: Supplied

DINNER time ... it's the great Aussie battle, when parents beg, bargain and blast at kids to eat their greens.

New research by SPC has revealed three out of four Aussie parents with children aged between two and 12 years of age, struggle to get their kids to eat their fruit and veggies. A quarter of parents face this battle daily.

SPC's survey also showed the most common sneaky tricks children employ to avoid eating veggies. Whether it meant offloading the greens to another family member (21 per cent), shoving them down their shirt (6 per cent), giving it to the dog (9 per cent) or just kicking up a royal fuss (28 per cent), these kids are gurus at veggie-avoidance.

We asked news.com.au readers to share nostalgic stories of their childhood dinner table, and discovered that Aussies are seasoned experts in the art of vegetable deception. Here are the best.

Hiding it under the napkin ... genius! Source: Supplied

Donna M: "I hated peas with a passion, and when I was 6 I discovered our Formica table had a metal lip underneath that was just the right width to hold a pea. When we moved a few years later, hundreds of dried peas scattered across the kitchen floor when the removal men picked up the table. Busted!"

Penni P: "Mum always sat me at the table until I ate all of my peas. At some point she would need to go to the toilet or check on my siblings, so I would sneak to the kitchen sink and pour them down the drain. That, or sneakily open the back door and throw them onto the lawn. I thought she never knew, but mums just do ..."

James Z: " Put them in [my] underpants, when everybody else finished eating, said I needed to go to the bathroom. Flushed them down [the toilet]."

Mason B: "I used to feed all my veggies to the dog ... until Mum busted me shovelling peas on the floor for it to hoover up. Fido was banned from the family room during mealtimes after that."

Feeding your veggies to the dog ... oldest trick in the veggie-avoidance book. Source: Supplied

Bec P: " I always wore my 'special jacket' to the table. I would chew all my veggies up and wait 'til my mum or dad were distracted and spit mouth full after mouth full down my sleeve. When all was gone I would then kindly offer to get them a drink of water and while in the kitchen throw all the chewed up mush into the unused old matters stove.

"This went on for months before my jacket started stinking and grew mould so I stopped however they never found the veggies until we moved out 2 years later when they went to clean it out. They were completely confused about what all the mouldy, smelly stuff was and I never told them. Got kids of my own now and besides one of them hiding peas up their nose (which caused it to bleed) I think I'm super vigilant and no one is allowed a drink at the table."

Bernadette M: "I would pretend to fall asleep at the table."

Sarah A: "I would get a sandwich bag and put it down my shirt so the top of the bag was in line with the top of my shirt. When I picked up my vegies I would just pull the top of my shirt out and put the vegies in the sandwich bag when mum wasn't looking. It gave the illusion than the vegies were going towards my mouth."

Brussels sprouts up the sleeve ... clever but mushy. Source: Supplied

Christine P: "I hated peas with a passion. I used to pop half my peas through the holes in the curtains behind my chair. Lol. Still get s**t put on me by family to this day 35 years later."

Bronnie K: "I would load up my cheeks with veggies and then make out that I needed to blow my nose. Out in the kitchen while still in view of mum and dad I would slightly turn my back to them and at the same time as blowing my nose I would spit the veggies into the tissues and then dispose of the lot into the bin. It took a while before mum and dad caught on."

Nicole T: "The only way I could ingest peas was to have a drink and swallow the peas like tablets. Hated them then and still do now. I don't even feed them to my children!"

Hiding broccoli outside in the bushes. Good move, kid. Source: Supplied

Philip J: "Went to the toilet a lot and used to stuff my peas and corn up my sleeve before hiding them in a cushion cover."

Becca W: "I was dared once and ate a plate of green beans and in return got 5 little blueberry pies ... took me 2 hours swallowing them whole. I absolutely hated beans, loved blueberry pies and now I hate both."

Alicia S: "I used to have a tissue on my lap and would put the veggies I didn't like it the tissue and then flush them down the toilet. Love veggies now though!"

If we're going to be honest, the only way you can get kids to eat veggies is by making meals like this. And who has time for that? Source: ThinkStock

So evidently, Aussie are a sneaky bunch. For those parents who are pulling out their hair trying to entice their children to eat veggies, here's what you have to look out for.

SPC's top list of tactics included*:

· Begging or whingeing (38.65%)

· Throwing tantrums (28.19%)

· Crying (27.19%)

· Giving it to another family member (21.12%)

· Pretending that their food makes them physically ill (17.83%)

· Feeding it to a pet (9.76%)

· Hiding food under the rim of their plate or cutlery (6.97%)

· Hiding food around the house such as in pot plants or furniture (6.67%)

*The SPC Sneaky Kids Survey was conducted by Pure Profile on behalf of SPC in July 2014, involving a representative sample of over 1,000 Australian parents with children aged 2—12 years of age from across Australia.

How did you avoid eating veggies as a kid? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ | @gracekoelma

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