Favourites

Quick! What's your favourite number?

Don't have one? Well, you'd better get one, if you think you'll be spending any time around kids.
Kids have favourites, and they expect you to as well. Sometimes it's a rank of favourites with careful deliberation, discussed over an afternoon of Perler Beads.

The kids lit up when I interviewed them for this comic.

If you ask, they'll likely have an explanation of why the goat was bumped from fifth place. Maybe there was an unfortunate encounter at the last farm visit. Or maybe someone learned a cool chicken fact that earned chicken a spot in the coveted top five.

I've been held captive at a dinner at East Side Mario's where the kids were having us guess their favourite numbers. Oh man, CHECK PLEASE. (Also, I call BS because I think they were making them up as they went along.)

Kids also don't like it if you don't have a favourite of something. It won't do. Everyone must have a favourite number or colour or dinosaur, and "I don't have one" or "I like many Minecraft Biomes!" are not answers.

I was roped into that, too, regarding favourite animals. Big Bro loves sheep and Little Bro loves owls, to the point that it's part of their identity. So here I am, some lame adult trying to get across that I like lots of animals-- some animals as a pet, others because they're beautiful and others because they're helpful or fascinating...

NO, MAMA. JUST WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE.

Alright, alright. So I got cornered into choosing ... uh... the panda, sure, why not, it is kind of interesting and nice to look at. But now that I've said it out loud, they think I'm some sort of big panda fanatic who can't get enough of all things panda.

"Here, Mama, I drew you another panda 'cause you love pandas."
"This is my mom. SHE LOVES PANDAS."
"Whoa, Mama! This store sells panda costumes! I bet you're happy now!"

Is it too late to change my answer?