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Different parenting styles
kati77
Posts: 3,146 Member
What kind of families do you have now with the Parenthood pack? Are the parents strict, or do they even care what the kids are doing? Or does one parent say one thing and the other something else?
I'm finding this quite fun with my three families I'm rotating between. I have three siblings, who have a very wealthy background (money cheats), and all of them have their own families with very different ways of parenting.
The oldest sister Beatrice is divorced and is trying to balance the business career with taking care of a clingy toddler. She's ambitious and wants her daughter to grow up well, so she's always strict with her.
Then there's Delilah, who's a widow with two girls, a teen and a child. I suppose she's trying her best to raise the girls, but she's only ever used the calm tone to for example tell the younger daughter not to make a mess. I think it's like, she knows she should say something, but she just doesn't feel like getting into it too much, perhaps just ignore it the next time. And anyway, the butler will do the cleaning up, so why get upset?
And finally there's the youngest brother Devon with wife Sophia and a teen son and a child daughter. Devon is really just a big kid himself, who's always had his way, so he would rather just be best friends with his kids. But then, he did, for example tell calmly that her daughter should not make a mess. Twice. But then, when he caught her the third time, he yelled, because, I suppose he just ran out of ways to handle the situation. Sophie on the other hand is trying to teach both kids good manners, but isn't very good at disciplining her son.
What kind of parents do you have in your games now?
I'm finding this quite fun with my three families I'm rotating between. I have three siblings, who have a very wealthy background (money cheats), and all of them have their own families with very different ways of parenting.
The oldest sister Beatrice is divorced and is trying to balance the business career with taking care of a clingy toddler. She's ambitious and wants her daughter to grow up well, so she's always strict with her.
Then there's Delilah, who's a widow with two girls, a teen and a child. I suppose she's trying her best to raise the girls, but she's only ever used the calm tone to for example tell the younger daughter not to make a mess. I think it's like, she knows she should say something, but she just doesn't feel like getting into it too much, perhaps just ignore it the next time. And anyway, the butler will do the cleaning up, so why get upset?
And finally there's the youngest brother Devon with wife Sophia and a teen son and a child daughter. Devon is really just a big kid himself, who's always had his way, so he would rather just be best friends with his kids. But then, he did, for example tell calmly that her daughter should not make a mess. Twice. But then, when he caught her the third time, he yelled, because, I suppose he just ran out of ways to handle the situation. Sophie on the other hand is trying to teach both kids good manners, but isn't very good at disciplining her son.
What kind of parents do you have in your games now?
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Comments
I kind of like the way the different parenting styles (or the ways you use them) give the sims more character. Actually probably more than the traits ever did...
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I don't like how drastic a simple scolding can change a young sim's core values. The teen in question, when punished by my method, learned to stopp the behaviour because of consequences. But he didn't become any nicer, just better behaved for the sake of avoiding trouble. Left to his own he'd always reset to his old behaviour. I couldn't use the scolding mechanic on him, as that would have raised his conflict resolution and emotional control, which would have been out of character for him. The boy grew up neutral in all categories except for responsibility, where he scored the bonus trait just from going to school for one week and cleaning the house occassionally.
I'm on to the next family in rotation now, with a drunkard of a mother, an irresponsible rarely at home (cc) fairy father, a ruthless, ambitious worcaholic teen daughter and a daydreaming, idealistic, schoolskipping, painting teen daughter.
On the other hand, my rotational save has some storyline going on for different families. One of my favorites at the moment is the Fengs. MCCC gave Victor and Lily a son, and while they were together, I played it so their son was mainly cared for by his nanny, whom Victor was having an affair with and eventually left his wife for. They moved into the apartment across the hall and have since started their own family, leaving the son with his mother. Lily has the hates children trait, so I've been playing her as cold and distant and even resentful of her son, which spiked when Victor left them. I see her ignoring his victories and biting at the heels of his shortcomings, whereas with Victor, I see him ignoring him, period. He's moved on to his other family.
Once the son reaches YA, I want him to be responsible and have good manners, but insensitive and possibly argumentative due to his upbringing by Lily. I can see him having trust issues because of what happened between his parents, so I think the jealousy trait would suit his character perfectly. I want him to be resentful of both his parents as they're both pretty awful imo, and likely cold towards his half-siblings for having it easier than he did. It's going to be a mess of a family; I'm looking forward to it.
Oh, and it might get even messier. The nanny wasn't the only woman Victor was seeing behind his ex-wife's back. He's also seeing Nancy Landgraab, a renowned criminal, and an alien with a vampire roommate who was quick to take care of a vampire who broke into their house to drink from her. Also, his new wife has the jealousy trait and wants to be a master vampire—just imagine what she could do to him if she found out he was cheating. And to top it off, he caught fire while cooking in his new apartment the day he left Lily. Karma is coming for him.
I'm loving it.
I really love the question mark with the calm approach. It's like "Oh, why are you doing this..."
I'm curious, does the "hates children" trait automatically affect the way the mother handles her children, or is it just the way you play because of the trait?
I'll have to try a sim with the hates children trait have a child some day. I almost did in TS3, but then got bored with that family too soon.
So at the end of the day I had much fun with the parenting pack once again, but I still don't use the actual parenting interactions much.
Apart from Jacques Villareal who doesn't give a 🐸🐸🐸🐸.
Unfortunately, Phoenix didn't really have much time to spend with Gabriella, since she was practically on her own with the triplets. & since Gabriella is out of control, I find Phoenix, being a lot more firm with her. I'm really trying to reverse this dysfunction I got going on with the heir...but like I said, I think she'll be in the red for all the character values. I find Parenthood to be a mixture of interesting and chaotic....pretty cool how things can turn out. You can plan for perfect kids, but there could always be that curveball. I'm finding that the traits really do matter for all family members involved.
Thanks in advance and sorry for posting on an old thread - this is really bugging me and as a newbie I couldn't start a discussion so thought I'd try and find as relevant a post as possible!!