If you take a pocket knife with you when you go to pick your b'sprouts it's so much easier than trying to pick them.
Don't know if you know this little trick - It's quite common in UK.
When you've completely picked them all off of the stalk and there are none left, try cutting a half inch deep "X" in the top of the stalk. You will get some useful winter greens after a couple of weeks - leaves that taste like sprouts and can be cooked like kale or cabbage. I always found them to be a welcome extra.
I once told my daughter when she was about 5 or 6 that she'd never grow up and be a big girl and have a hairy chest like her dad unless she ate up all her brussels sprouts. I hesitate to suggest the same to you of course, but strangely it worked with my daughter Carmen. That is, she ate them , not sure about the other.