How do you manage a big household? «123...Next Go

FairyGodMother

I have Grandma, Son, DIL, 4 kids....and DIL is pregnant now I am a glutton for punishment
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I think a Farm Pack is coming, LOL
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I made the bathroom private, meaning the toilets and showers had their own entrance. I remember months ago that worked for me. Now there is always someone walking in and embarrassment shows up....constantly with this household. Any ideas to avoid this? Do I need a bathroom for every single person in the household?
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I am not use to playing this many Sims at once and find it quite difficult! How do you play with such big families? Two of mine didn't do their homework because I couldn't keep up with all of them! They don't take care of their needs till they are in the "red". Maybe I need to go back to playing Sim couple with two kids!
I have played a Single Sim for a while now (when I actually went in the game to play) but, the good thing is.....I lasted much much longer than 10 minutes this time

BESS73

I tend to pause a lot and line up stuff for them to do. The kids are lined up to do homework as soon as they get of the bus, that way I don't forget. Adults I usually have at least one who stays home and does the cooking, cleaning, gardening etc. I like big sim households, I get bored with small families or single sims. I always make sure they socialise with each other a lot, that way they get on well and if you are busy with other sims the others chat along nicely.

Faberries

I basically pause the game a lot and constantly change between the sims. I also just click on the auto solve buttons, or cheat a bit with their needs

I can assure you that it will get easier, when you find a way that it works for you

NoWayJose527

I have several large families, and they can be challenging. My play style -- for every household -- is to choose one family member to play. I keep autonomy on high at all times, and I let the other family members "do their thing" -- with only a little direction from me, now and then. If I'm playing as a parent, I might try to corral the kids and make them do homework. I remind myself that in real life, big households usually are a bit chaotic, and it is hard for parents to do everything they'd like. It adds a little bit of realism, and that's how I prefer my game to be. It's interesting, too, to see how some of my sim parents do seem to have things under control while others can't keep up. Again, it mirrors real life, and I like that.

feetinstockings

I like playing big families.
as was said pause and line up things for them to do,
check their doing them as they can cancel all or some.
as for bathrooms, say you have two bathrooms, and four kids, make two use the bathroom those in most need, and two do homework, draw play, eat etc, then those that have peed and maybe showered, go eat, homework etc. then the other two can go pee.
I use my bathrooms during the night to. I only have two bathrooms and soon to be 8 sims.
during the night, I wake and send the most urgent before they get in the red to the bathroom, to pee and shower. and send them back to bed if need be. sometimes an hour before school or bed, there all in the green but a little tired so they go to bed for an hour.
Upgrade all your bathroom appliances, to bidet to fancy soap, and full jets in the shower and sturdy taps. this way they wont need to shower as often. have several if not all adults get a good mechanic level to do all these. and train the teens in this to. they can mend a broken toilet just like the adults.
Social I do when their eating, sometimes in two seatings, one lot eat while the other are doing other things, change it around.
also I like to get a little telly in the evenings, they can chat and get there fun up to.
they just need managing a little more. but give them free time to social as they want, or paint or something, I let mine have full autonomy so I use this.

AvaTheSimmer123

I don't usually have big families but if I have like 5 Sims, which is quite a struggle for me, I pause the game and give everybody something to do like shower or go on the computer or garden. No offence, but your home does look a little small and maybe an extension or another bathroom could come in handy. I found that having a smaller home was very difficult to manage.

feetinstockings

we need bunk beds.

FairyGodMother

Seems like pausing the game is a good way to do it because I am like a lunatic in the game trying to get everyone/everything done
@BESS73 when the kids get home, a lot of times one is in the yellow with fun, the other needs to pee and shower, etc. So, if they do the homework first, at least it is out of the way. They should automatically take care of the rest of the needs then! No matter what they do, they are always chatting or hugging on their own, so social is definitely not a problem (so far).

@Cuddleblaine How do you cheat with their needs? I am like a mad woman switching to all of them all the time

@NoWayJose527 My autonomy is on high so maybe I should play one in the household and help others on occasion? I know that will be hard because whenever I did play families in any of the series, I always had to make sure they had good grades and needs were full when starting the day out. I am too old now to be going crazy in my game, so I definitely will try it this way!

@feetinstockings I was having two use the bathrooms while the others ate or did homework. I more so focused on the kids needs which made Mom,Dad,and Grandma constantly walking in on someone in the bathroom to where I would have them "help" the other kids with homework. It still seemed chaotic to me, LOL. I do have the DIL fix stuff to get the handiness skill up but ended up replacing the toilets with unbreakable, but sink is constantly breaking! I didn't realize that upgrading would help with the needs (slow it down?) so will have her upgrade when she is able. I think she is almost to level 3.

@AvaTheSimmer123 Yeah, I did add an extra room for Grandma. I may have to get a bigger house or extend this one, which has plenty of room for expansion. Maybe I should have started with 5 instead of 7 (soon to be 8) When this game first came out I did have couples with 1-3 kids, so maybe this is too many for me! To think that I was planning to go in the game and make a single mom with 7 kids right off the bat! What was I thinking

Thank you all for your excellent advice! I will try all these out and hopefully I can get back into family play!

FairyGodMother

feetinstockings wrote: »

we need bunk beds.

That would definitely help and I do miss them! Hopefully we will get bunkbeds down the road

bethanyablott

I know how hard it is because im more a big family sim player too. Usually I will hit pause and line up a list of things to do and watch it play out. If they have important things to do like there work daily tasks or homework that really need to be done to boost grades and get promotions I will use a cheat simply because I want my sims to be successful and rich without using a money cheat. Also try to focus on one sim at a time I know it sounds silly but when you focus on one sim the rest usually sort themselves out.

FairyGodMother

@bethanyablott I do motherlode (one time at first) when I start any of my families. A household this big needs two computers, right? LOL

Then if they complain about the bed or shower I usually end up replacing them (motherlode again). Now I need to "upgrade" instead of "replace" I have not used any other cheat (although I remember clicking on the mailbox to fill needs way back when the game started, don't remember how I did it though, I think it was this game?)

I have my lifespan on long, so 80 days seems like a long time to age, so I may change that! I will try focusing on one and see how that goes.

MasonGamer

Its easy because my sim, had a mansion to begin with after his parents and family, all died in a house raid.
so now he has the mansion to himself and his family wealth.

conveniently there are 7 rooms. the master bedroom and 6 standard suites

its easy because the age groups vary.

2 Adults
3 Young Adults
2 Teens
1 Child (soon to be a teen)

it works because school and work and they're out of my hair, and I only have the parents. The parents are stay at home parents. the Jordan family owns most of the town anyway.

cheat needs helps sometimes, but i try to get them all to the table for break fast. and dinner.

Shift click sim -cheat needs - make sim happy.

NoWayJose527

charlotteprice wrote: »

Seems like pausing the game is a good way to do it because I am like a lunatic in the game trying to get everyone/everything done


@NoWayJose527 My autonomy is on high so maybe I should play one in the household and help others on occasion? I know that will be hard because whenever I did play families in any of the series, I always had to make sure they had good grades and needs were full when starting the day out. I am too old now to be going crazy in my game, so I definitely will try it this way!



Thank you all for your excellent advice! I will try all these out and hopefully I can get back into family play!

@charlotteprice I was exactly the same way in Sims 2. All my sim children had to make good grades. Now, I'm easing up on them with Sims 4. Making good grades doesn't seem to give a student much of an advantage later in life. I'm sure there are some advantages, and maybe another player can explain them. For all intents and purposes, though, I don't see much difference in the lives of successful straight-A students and those whose grades are only average. I do have a parent help kids with their schoolwork when possible, but I no longer feel I'm failing my families if a child goes to school with unfinished assignments. It is much more relaxing this way.

Faberries

charlotteprice wrote: »

@Cuddleblaine How do you cheat with their needs? I am like a mad woman switching to all of them all the time

You can use testingcheats on to either stop the needs from decaying or fill them all up :)

Sasquatch_01

charlotteprice wrote: »

I have Grandma, Son, DIL, 4 kids....and DIL is pregnant now I am a glutton for punishment
[img][/img]
I think a Farm Pack is coming, LOL
[img][/img]
I made the bathroom private, meaning the toilets and showers had their own entrance. I remember months ago that worked for me. Now there is always someone walking in and embarrassment shows up....constantly with this household. Any ideas to avoid this? Do I need a bathroom for every single person in the household?
[img][/img]
I am not use to playing this many Sims at once and find it quite difficult! How do you play with such big families? Two of mine didn't do their homework because I couldn't keep up with all of them! They don't take care of their needs till they are in the "red". Maybe I need to go back to playing Sim couple with two kids!
I have played a Single Sim for a while now (when I actually went in the game to play) but, the good thing is.....I lasted much much longer than 10 minutes this time

Just follow a regular schedule regardless of their need level and assign responsibilities to sims who have high skill levels for specific tasks such as preparation of breakfast, repair, gardening, cleaning, etc, and prevent them from intersecting where resources and utilities must be shared. You'll find that there is just enough time for a full household to keep their needs at maximum.

FairyGodMother

It was the week-end in the game and I took the whole family to a tiny park I made. Dale (Dad) made a wish in the wishing well, wished for money and he did get money in his wallet So I decided to have Grandma Esmeralda to wish for youth....... I had no clue......didnt know this would happen She became a ghost
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It wouldn't let her wish again, so I had her pay $5000 for whatever the only other option was. Didn't do anything. I had to wait till the next day and took her back and it let her wish for life
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I was trying to decide (when she became a ghost) if I should exit and not save, happy I waited because she is back to normal now

*makes note to steer clear of the Wishing Well*

FairyGodMother

@Cuddleblaine I will try letting them take care of their needs, but will keep the cheat in mind, LOL
Thanks so much for your help!

DominicLaurence

After years dealing with big families I figured something out that may help you lol

• Spend all your money in bathrooms, all your problems will be solved faster.
• Multitasking the needs can prove to be very useful, like eat, watch tv and talk to each other at the same time.
• Prepare more food than they may eat, so whenever they come to starve you can quickly take it back from the fridge.
• Showers are better than bathtubs.
• Try not to let the kids awake until late night, especially if you don't have the best beds. Have their energy back to normal can be hard.
• Whenever you think some member has nothing to do, rethink 'cause there's always something to do in a house.
• Helping the kids with the homework is vital.
• Money helps of course. If maybe their hobbies are painting and writing it won't be much until you're rich.
• Don't be afraid to use your vacation days, it's money for staying home, can be useful.

FairyGodMother

@Sasquatch_01 I took them to the park and thats the only place they have been. Seems like the time flies when they get home from school and work! DIL was pregnant (had a baby girl) so I didn't take them anywhere yet. I panicked when Grandma turned to a ghost because she is my cook and she cleans! But she is back now and hopefully I can get the two women to go out while kids at school and Dad at work, and collect stuff and start gardening. Yes, I need to get better at making sure they don't intersect at the same time. I thought I would go in the game and leave everyone to take care of their own needs except Dad. But, that didn't happen, when Grandma became a ghost.....I panicked
I will try again and hopefully can get this right! LOL

Haids5987

I just started the Amazon challenge and so far I have 3 women, 1 baby, 1 slave, and 1 on the way. It is hard! Plus it's an added challenge to make your own money and build your own house. Big families are tough! I have found, however, that I can only quit the game when all my Simmies are asleep.

Nofravell

I cheat, a lot, and I second the bunk beds!

FairyGodMother

@DominicLaurence I have a bathtub so they can soak or play in it. I mostly click on shower if its available though! I did replace the bathrooms with unbreakable toilets and gave them better shower and tub. I didn't replace the sink and it is constantly breaking and the dishwasher breaks quite often, LOL.
I have comfortable beds for them, but not the best. So far they wake up OK I noticed all three (Grandma, Dad, and DIL (daughter-in-law because I can't remember her name) will automatically help them with their homework. I only told them to a few times and they now do it themselves
I only have Dad working, but I did have the women paint some, so they can sell them. They are just starting though so not much money left, but I am going to try not to motherlode again I wish I hadn't had Grandma spend $5000 dollars on the well, cause I didn't notice anything!
I forgot about vacation days, I think I will take them all on vacation when the baby ages up? Oh my, that will be exciting

Thanks for your advice, everyone here is giving me good advice and I........definitely need it!

Haids5987

I was shocked that TS4 didn't have bunk beds. It was such a big deal when they added them to TS3!

imhappy

I downloaded UI mod to fill all needs, but you can do it with a cheat. They are looking pretty scrawny since they never eat, lol.

Also, if you have get to work - they can all run a store together (wish we could open a store from our house)
And if you have get together - they can all be a in club together

PHOEBESMOM601

If I'm playing a large household I don't worry about managing all of them at all times. Sometimes a Sim needs to be left to their own devices. If they aren't smart enough to fend for themselves for a little while...oh well.

FairyGodMother

@Haids5987 I do think we will get the bunkbeds in the game, not sure when, but I do believe it will happen

@imhappy I do have GT and GTW and made a dance club once and I prefer to just join one, LOL.
I have not tried running a retail store yet because it doesn't really interest me, but I like placing them in the world and visiting them
So, can your kids help out or is it teens? I have not kept up with the retail part!