I play them all—from cradle to grave (and sometimes beyond the grave, lol)—and if more life stages were available I’d play them as fully as possible too.
I’m not surprised to see a lot of votes for skipping babies. It’s true there is much less to do with them. I personally use the baby stage for family bonding and raising their relationship bars with the other members of the household. I most enjoy playing close families, and that starts here.
I love toddlers, and mine continue with socializing and maxing relationships with family members if they haven’t already, as well as learning several new skills—even if they can’t utilize many of them until later in life.
The child stage is exciting in that Sims are becoming more independent, are learning more useful skills while still being playful and imaginative, and can begin to explore and interact more with their world and befriend other Sims in it.
My Sims become even more individualized during the teen stage, and this is when I finalize my plans for how I’d like each Sim’s adulthood to begin, whether that’s preparing for university, starting a full-time job, or planning for marriage and children right away.
I don’t differentiate much between the YA and adult stages, as they share all the same possibilities, minus adults potentially having a mid-life crisis. How I play them at these stages is determined not by their age but by their individual personalities/trait combinations.
As for elders, that’s when mine get to do all the things they may not have had much time for while focusing on careers and raising families, such as pursuing hobbies in their retirement, more traveling, etc.
For me, every life stage is important and serves a purpose.
I don't actually skip the baby stage, I just keep it short. Even in my current 900 day lifespan stage, babies only get two days. And that is not because they're boring, because they aren't. I enjoy having my sims take them for a stroll, and my parents keep them with them all through the day, just as I did with my own children when they were babies. I have some CC baby baskets, so that when Mom is outside working in the garden, the baby is right there with her, in a basket in the shade of one of the fruit trees. Wherever Mom is, the baby is nearby. I like the baby stage, except in the middle of the sims' night.
The only reason I keep the baby stage short is because of the major disruption they are to their parents' sleep. By the time the parent snuggles and plays with the baby enough to get the social needs up, feeds it, and maybe changes the diaper, they've lost at least 2 sim hours of sleep. That is NOT realistic. When my kids were babies, they slept in a cradle right up against my side of the bed. When they woke and cried to be fed, I reached over and brought them into bed with me and went back to sleep while they nursed. They were in no danger of me rolling on them, because I never change position in my sleep. I have always wakened any time I need to change position in the night. I'm also a light sleeper, and the one and only time I ever rolled onto one of the babies, I immediately woke up.
I do have some issues with the toddler and elder stage, though I give them both considerably more time than I give to babies. I don't like how toddlers are so helpless right up until they are school aged. They go from having to be carried up and down stairs and in the car, eating in a high chair or drinking from a bottle, and using a potty seat, to suddenly being fully mobile and having to go to school. I finally figured out how to fix that issue, at least to my own satisfaction. I now have their stage set to the equivalent of 3 human years. Then with the NRaas Career mod and its School module, I have them enroll in homeschool and disable homework. So for the next three years equivalent, they are still at home with Mom and/or Dad, but they get to play all day, and do simple chores like clearing the table now and then, and sometimes wander out into the pasture and talk to the horses and give them treats, pet them, etc. Then when they are six, they enroll in school.
I haven't yet found a good solution for my issues with elders. The way they are depicted in the game is typical of a real life human of at least 80 years of age, much older than the age we here in the U.S. are allowed to retire with full Social Security benefits. My father didn't start needing a cane until only a couple of years before his death last November, at 87 years of age. My 86 year old mother still doesn't need one. The only thing that really slows her down in getting around is that she is blind now. But in her own house, she'll reach out her hand and find the wall, then she's off to wherever she needs to go, as fast as ever.
I'd like for sims to be able to retire around 66, the legal retirement age here, but not get to that feeble looking stage of elders in the game until around 80 or so. But for now, I have the elder stage set to around the equivalent of about 70 years. But regardless of when they turn elders, I enjoy having them able to do things like reminisce, show people pictures of their grandchildren, rant at the world with their cane, and just hang out with their spouse, cuddling on park benches, and making the most of whatever time they have left together.
One other thing I am thinking of changing is to get a mod to allow children to ride horses. Until their children were born, my current sims went for a horseback ride together every Saturday morning. Now that their children are old enough that they could ride in real life, I'd like to resume that family activity.
I always keep Babies at 2 days (lowest it will go) no matter the lifespan I'm playing. That's the closest I get to skipping. I have been known to cheat needs ignoring them until the birthday notice appears.
This is a script mod tweaking parts of the punishment system from Generations. It will warn you with a pop-up whenever game tries to force a sim to scold a misbehaving child/teen so you can to stop them if you wish. (It even lets you turn off the whole forcing to scold feature altogether if you choose)
The mod also adds a custom Punishment... interaction menu on all child and teen sims that lets you choose the type of punishment to perform as and whenever you see fit instead of letting the game decide for you.
It's pretty cool! I use it... took me a while to give in and finally install it after seeing it on the front page so many times. Now I'm glad I have it because the grounding system is a bit broken. This mod lets you be in control (and then some).
I'm not going to vote for any of those as well as I like to get the full experience of playing all life stages myself even though I've only played the young adult life stage as I like to turn aging off. In my SS game that I've been playing for a couple of years, I've had my SS and her bf have a baby which I allowed to stay a baby for almost 28 days before turning aging on so that he and their puppy could age up...
I miss an eighth option: none of the above I don’t skip life stages, they all get at least a couple of days. Life span of babies is the shortest (2 days, the minimum) but I don’t skip it. I do sometimes buy a birthday cake in the morning of their birthday (in any life stage but YA, A and E) instead of waiting for them to age autonomously that day.
I also don't skip life stages but do make baby life span the shortest possible.
I must admit that I always shorten their lifespan.
But I also shorten the lifespan of babies, toddlers and elders a bit, but not as much as the children. I play on epic lifespan so the individual lifespans are too long for different reasons: I halve the lifespan of elders (grudgingly), cause otherwise my towns explode of overpopulation, because the elders tend to live muuuch longer as planned. And after my babies have met all family members and the parents and siblings had enough time to snuggle, I´ll age them up. I also age the toddlers up when they have met the family, built up a good relationship to them and learned everything.
But the children I always limit to six days, in my opinion they are boring to play with. Even with the new interactions-mods they have nothing to do and the family members can´t interact with them properly.
I dont really skip lifestages, but the one i want to the most if teenager probably, mainly just cause i want them to be an adult already so they dont have to go to school anymore.
Not really skipping, but more like ignoring them or sometime aging them up a little earlier, I hate taking care baby, toddler, or even child sim, oh and also Elder. I shorten baby and toddler to the bare minimum.
Baby and Elder. I age babies up the day I am allowed to in the game and I never let my adults become Elders. I switch to a different family when I find out an adult will become an elder.
I don't technically skip it, I just rarely ever let them age up to being an elder. It feels so final to me because of what comes after and I don't want my sims to die.
Eventually I'll be aging some of my sims up to elders when I play my main sims as kids or teens. I've already created their parents and siblings and I'm building/remodeling houses so once I have a world they can all fit in their parents will age to elders at least.
Babies and toddlers. They're cute but slightly annoying to me because when I'm trying to do things with my adult sims they always are trying to go interact with them so I use testingcheats to keep their motives up so they don't need anything. Also elders. I kind of switch over once my sims become elders but I have the YA and adult life stage to be pretty long (70 days or so each).
After @Featherbelle and I had three RL ones of our own. I think I'll stick to 1 day and age up the babies. I've had enough with changing diapers and 2AM feedings while half asleep and trying not to fall over.
@igazor. I don't think I'm far behind you on that account. Trust me, I think I'm starting to get as grumpy as you are. Though of course, my irritability could be due to my arthritis.
Now to those smart-mouth whipper-snappers...
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
After @Featherbelle and I had three RL ones of our own. I think I'll stick to 1 day and age up the babies. I've had enough with changing diapers and 2AM feedings while half asleep and trying not to fall over.
You do get the option of reliving that in small doses at some point when you become a grandparent. Or in larger doses perhaps, like my poor grandparents and one great grandparent did when suddenly a bundle of joy (me) was left for them to raise and take care of. Although by that time I was taking my meals in a high chair, from all accounts. I don't remember very much of this now, but I do remember the high chair and transitioning from a crib to my first bed, and it was all in their house.
Probably had a playpen, but don't think I ever had a baby swing. They existed but may not have been in popular usage back then. I know we didn't have car seats/restraints, kids back then were tossed into the back of a station wagon or the equivalent with cigarette ads blaring on the radio and the best of all possible outcomes was just hoped for. Now I wonder if an elder's supposed affinity for rocking chairs comes from some subconscious longing for the baby swing they once or maybe never had.
@igazor. I don't think I'm far behind you on that account. Trust me, I think I'm starting to get as grumpy as you are. Though of course, my irritability could be due to my arthritis.
Sorry to hear of your arthritis, but I never said I was grumpy. I said that I didn't expect to wake up on a particular birthday and suddenly by definition be grumpier. Just who do you think you are, anyway? You young people and your age-based stereotypes, I tell you...oh, wait a minute. Ah, never mind.
Honestly! Those of us who play passionately...skip NONE. At least I don't skip any life stage. There are many things that can be missed when skipping life stages. I found that out when I finally let one of my elders die of natural causes. Her send off was touching...and her family got a boatload of simoleons! And as for babies...why would you want skip molding those first few days? They definitely help shape how your sim's life will turn out! But, this is just my humble opinion...carry on with your regular simming!
Is there a support group for Simming Addiction? I think I need it...
I chose baby because if there's a stage I'm gonna skip, it's that one, even though I do have the span set VERY short. (I always play on Epic, if I don't have aging already turned off ) It's just the most boring life stage to me although finding mods to give babies hair and better clothes has made me play with them more. Tee hee.
You can't really skip the Elder stage because... Then they're dead. And that makes me sad depending on the Sim. Heck, even when one of my favorite Sims becomes an Elder I get sad.
@igazor you crack me up!
If there were a mod out there to take away Elder's slumped shoulders and scrawny arms I'd download it in a heartbeat and never go back!
Not ALL Elders look that way.....I mean heck some of them are pretty hunky and have kept their youthful stamina.
Like Scott Bakula.
But *ahem* ANYWAY!
The constant wailing it's just more than I can take.
Of course babies cry sometimes, and sometimes for no reason. But if TS3 babies are constantly wailing, I would have to say that something is wrong or their needs are not being attended to.
Or is this comment meant to be about TS4? This thread seems to be attracting quite a lot of crossover.
After @Featherbelle and I had three RL ones of our own. I think I'll stick to 1 day and age up the babies. I've had enough with changing diapers and 2AM feedings while half asleep and trying not to fall over.
You do get the option of reliving that in small doses at some point when you become a grandparent. Or in larger doses perhaps, like my poor grandparents and one great grandparent did when suddenly a bundle of joy (me) was left for them to take care of. Although by that time I was taking my meals in a high chair, from all accounts. I don't remember very much of this now, but I do remember the high chair and transitioning from a crib to my first bed, and it was all in their house.
Probably had a playpen, but don't think I ever had a baby swing. They existed but may not have been in popular usage back then. I know we didn't have car seats/restraints, kids back then were tossed into the back of a station wagon or the equivalent with cigarette ads blaring on the radio and the best of all possible outcomes was just hoped for. Now I wonder if an elder's supposed affinity for rocking chairs comes from some subconscious longing for the baby swing they once or maybe never had.
@igazor. I don't think I'm far behind you on that account. Trust me, I think I'm starting to get as grumpy as you are. Though of course, my irritability could be due to my arthritis.
Sorry to hear of your arthritis, but I never said I was grumpy. I said that I didn't expect to wake up on a particular birthday and suddenly by definition be grumpier. Just who do you think you are, anyway? You young people and your age-based stereotypes, I tell you...oh, wait a minute. Ah, never mind.
Hey! Don't grump shame. Grouch Life 4 Ever, yo! You virtual kids, get off my digital lawn!
I'm almost bumping into 60 too, but I've always been grouchy, so that's no change. The main thing I don't like about Elders is that you go from about 40-50 to 80 overnight. I don't really skip the Elder stage, but they end up as mostly live-in babysitters. I play generation style, so there's usually grandparents, parents, and kids in the same house. Elders retire early, maybe take up photography or painting or some such but are left to their own devices. The way I've got the aging set up, Elders will usually kick off when the kids are in their late teens or early YA.
Babies on the other hand, can't do anything fun with them. So I set it to 2 days, and even then I'll use a cake to age them up after only 1 day. All the family bonding stuff, I do during the toddler years while they're learning the skills.
I seem to be in the majority here, but I tend not to keep babies for very long. I tend to play on "long" or "epic" lifespan but babies usually get a birthday cake a day or two after popping out.
Toddlers are way cute, in fact toddler is one of my favorite states in the game if only for how adorable they look and how cute the interactions are for training them to walk/talk/potty and playing with them. They're also when your sims' genetics start to show. The baby stage isn't the worst thing in the world but its pretty underwhelming compared to that.
@bklienhart@igazor - The nice thing about having grandchildren (or at least when my kid (He's 16 right now) reaches marrying age) you get to send 'em back to their parents at the end of the day. ~evil grin~ I'm looking forward to taking my grandkids out to get loads of sugar...and then send 'em back wired to their parents. "You see, kiddo, That's for all the white hairs you gave me growing up..." My daughter-in-law is so going to hate me. "Mommy mommy...Grandpa took us out to Dairy Queen for chocolate sundaes."
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
If there were a mod out there to take away Elder's slumped shoulders and scrawny arms I'd download it in a heartbeat and never go back!
Not ALL Elders look that way.....I mean heck some of them are pretty hunky and have kept their youthful stamina. Like Scott Bakula.
You already know, I'm totally with you on that! And if mod a like that ever comes out, I hope somebody announces it on the forum, because I'd be on it in heartbeat too!
@bklienhart@igazor - The nice thing about having grandchildren (or at least when my kid (He's 16 right now) reaches marrying age) you get to send 'em back to their parents at the end of the day.
Yes, but you see my point was that my grandparents did not have that luxury because there was nowhere (helpful) to send me back to. Although I am sure the fantasy of leaving me in a basket on some random doorstep must have entered their minds at least once or twice, not that they ever would have admitted to it at the time, after they had finished raising their own three kids and thought they were done with all of that as a full time activity. They couldn't help trying to spoil me though, in their own way. It's what grandparents do.
Comments
I play them all—from cradle to grave (and sometimes beyond the grave, lol)—and if more life stages were available I’d play them as fully as possible too.
I’m not surprised to see a lot of votes for skipping babies. It’s true there is much less to do with them. I personally use the baby stage for family bonding and raising their relationship bars with the other members of the household. I most enjoy playing close families, and that starts here.
I love toddlers, and mine continue with socializing and maxing relationships with family members if they haven’t already, as well as learning several new skills—even if they can’t utilize many of them until later in life.
The child stage is exciting in that Sims are becoming more independent, are learning more useful skills while still being playful and imaginative, and can begin to explore and interact more with their world and befriend other Sims in it.
My Sims become even more individualized during the teen stage, and this is when I finalize my plans for how I’d like each Sim’s adulthood to begin, whether that’s preparing for university, starting a full-time job, or planning for marriage and children right away.
I don’t differentiate much between the YA and adult stages, as they share all the same possibilities, minus adults potentially having a mid-life crisis. How I play them at these stages is determined not by their age but by their individual personalities/trait combinations.
As for elders, that’s when mine get to do all the things they may not have had much time for while focusing on careers and raising families, such as pursuing hobbies in their retirement, more traveling, etc.
For me, every life stage is important and serves a purpose.
The only reason I keep the baby stage short is because of the major disruption they are to their parents' sleep. By the time the parent snuggles and plays with the baby enough to get the social needs up, feeds it, and maybe changes the diaper, they've lost at least 2 sim hours of sleep. That is NOT realistic. When my kids were babies, they slept in a cradle right up against my side of the bed. When they woke and cried to be fed, I reached over and brought them into bed with me and went back to sleep while they nursed. They were in no danger of me rolling on them, because I never change position in my sleep. I have always wakened any time I need to change position in the night. I'm also a light sleeper, and the one and only time I ever rolled onto one of the babies, I immediately woke up.
I do have some issues with the toddler and elder stage, though I give them both considerably more time than I give to babies. I don't like how toddlers are so helpless right up until they are school aged. They go from having to be carried up and down stairs and in the car, eating in a high chair or drinking from a bottle, and using a potty seat, to suddenly being fully mobile and having to go to school. I finally figured out how to fix that issue, at least to my own satisfaction. I now have their stage set to the equivalent of 3 human years. Then with the NRaas Career mod and its School module, I have them enroll in homeschool and disable homework. So for the next three years equivalent, they are still at home with Mom and/or Dad, but they get to play all day, and do simple chores like clearing the table now and then, and sometimes wander out into the pasture and talk to the horses and give them treats, pet them, etc. Then when they are six, they enroll in school.
I haven't yet found a good solution for my issues with elders. The way they are depicted in the game is typical of a real life human of at least 80 years of age, much older than the age we here in the U.S. are allowed to retire with full Social Security benefits. My father didn't start needing a cane until only a couple of years before his death last November, at 87 years of age. My 86 year old mother still doesn't need one. The only thing that really slows her down in getting around is that she is blind now. But in her own house, she'll reach out her hand and find the wall, then she's off to wherever she needs to go, as fast as ever.
I'd like for sims to be able to retire around 66, the legal retirement age here, but not get to that feeble looking stage of elders in the game until around 80 or so. But for now, I have the elder stage set to around the equivalent of about 70 years. But regardless of when they turn elders, I enjoy having them able to do things like reminisce, show people pictures of their grandchildren, rant at the world with their cane, and just hang out with their spouse, cuddling on park benches, and making the most of whatever time they have left together.
One other thing I am thinking of changing is to get a mod to allow children to ride horses. Until their children were born, my current sims went for a horseback ride together every Saturday morning. Now that their children are old enough that they could ride in real life, I'd like to resume that family activity.
@Thunderpie69 If you use mods, you may want to check out User-Directed Scolding + Other Punishment Tweaks
It's pretty cool! I use it... took me a while to give in and finally install it after seeing it on the front page so many times. Now I'm glad I have it because the grounding system is a bit broken. This mod lets you be in control (and then some).
S3 simblr: http://simplysimming.tumblr.com/
S4 simblr: http://simlogic.tumblr.com/
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
I totally agree.
I also don't skip life stages but do make baby life span the shortest possible.
But I also shorten the lifespan of babies, toddlers and elders a bit, but not as much as the children. I play on epic lifespan so the individual lifespans are too long for different reasons: I halve the lifespan of elders (grudgingly), cause otherwise my towns explode of overpopulation, because the elders tend to live muuuch longer as planned. And after my babies have met all family members and the parents and siblings had enough time to snuggle, I´ll age them up. I also age the toddlers up when they have met the family, built up a good relationship to them and learned everything.
But the children I always limit to six days, in my opinion they are boring to play with. Even with the new interactions-mods they have nothing to do and the family members can´t interact with them properly.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/953447/streuner-a-cat-s-tale
Eventually I'll be aging some of my sims up to elders when I play my main sims as kids or teens. I've already created their parents and siblings and I'm building/remodeling houses so once I have a world they can all fit in their parents will age to elders at least.
@igazor. I don't think I'm far behind you on that account. Trust me, I think I'm starting to get as grumpy as you are. Though of course, my irritability could be due to my arthritis.
Now to those smart-mouth whipper-snappers...
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
Probably had a playpen, but don't think I ever had a baby swing. They existed but may not have been in popular usage back then. I know we didn't have car seats/restraints, kids back then were tossed into the back of a station wagon or the equivalent with cigarette ads blaring on the radio and the best of all possible outcomes was just hoped for. Now I wonder if an elder's supposed affinity for rocking chairs comes from some subconscious longing for the baby swing they once or maybe never had.
Sorry to hear of your arthritis, but I never said I was grumpy. I said that I didn't expect to wake up on a particular birthday and suddenly by definition be grumpier. Just who do you think you are, anyway? You young people and your age-based stereotypes, I tell you...oh, wait a minute. Ah, never mind.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
You can't really skip the Elder stage because... Then they're dead.
@igazor you crack me up!
If there were a mod out there to take away Elder's slumped shoulders and scrawny arms I'd download it in a heartbeat and never go back!
Not ALL Elders look that way.....I mean heck some of them are pretty hunky and have kept their youthful stamina.
Like Scott Bakula.
But *ahem* ANYWAY!
What a fun poll. Carry on my friends.
Or is this comment meant to be about TS4? This thread seems to be attracting quite a lot of crossover.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
Hey! Don't grump shame. Grouch Life 4 Ever, yo! You virtual kids, get off my digital lawn!
I'm almost bumping into 60 too, but I've always been grouchy, so that's no change. The main thing I don't like about Elders is that you go from about 40-50 to 80 overnight. I don't really skip the Elder stage, but they end up as mostly live-in babysitters. I play generation style, so there's usually grandparents, parents, and kids in the same house. Elders retire early, maybe take up photography or painting or some such but are left to their own devices. The way I've got the aging set up, Elders will usually kick off when the kids are in their late teens or early YA.
Babies on the other hand, can't do anything fun with them. So I set it to 2 days, and even then I'll use a cake to age them up after only 1 day. All the family bonding stuff, I do during the toddler years while they're learning the skills.
Toddlers are way cute, in fact toddler is one of my favorite states in the game if only for how adorable they look and how cute the interactions are for training them to walk/talk/potty and playing with them. They're also when your sims' genetics start to show. The baby stage isn't the worst thing in the world but its pretty underwhelming compared to that.
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
You already know, I'm totally with you on that! And if mod a like that ever comes out, I hope somebody announces it on the forum, because I'd be on it in heartbeat too!
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net