How do you decide when enough is enough? «1234...Next Go

Mindsimscreate

Ok, so you may or may not’ve seen my poll about small families or large families. Well, i’m trying to decide when enough kids is enough kids, and I would love to hear your opinions on the topic. Thanks for reading 🥳

aaronrulz

My sim couples usually have two kids because I become too obsessed with trying to keep the family together and in the same house...even when adults, which is not realistic. (Unless they are living in a mansion) lol. I also am bad at deciding who to play for the next legacy. Fewer children mean fewer decisions. I am playing a couple now and forcing myself to let them have like 4 kids just to see how it plays out.

WildIrishBanshee

Three is my magic number tbh. Two YAs move out, the other one stays home and marries/has kids. I usually then have enough room for them to work on their three, and so on and so forth. I also play all my sims, so each household goes legacy style with an heir and all that. It can be great fun!

ChelleJo

My 100 baby matriarch is currently pregnant with triplets, which will equal 21 babies, and she's 5 days from being an adult. I'm hoping to hit 50 babies in her life time. So I don't think I know when enough is enough. Maybe when you are more ready to pull out your hair then play your save?

Mindsimscreate

@ChelleJo but for your normal families how do you decide?

citysimmer

My sims usually have 3 or less.

ChelleJo

For my normal families, it depends on the sims. Family oriented sims can have as many as 5 or 6 kids, while a confirmed bachelor or bachelorette might only have one (or 4, depends on how much I feel like torturing them).

Really, outside challenges, I let my sims decide basically. What kind of person they are, and what risky woohoo gives us, determines what they have. My happy place is 2-3 kids, but I'd had surprised with risky woohoo often, and I am very much a roll with the punches type player.

And if my sims roll whims to TFB, I indulge them, regardless how many kids they currently have.

gemjas

I have a mod that prevents townies from generating (homeless sims I've created take up NPC slots). So, most of the time, my sims usually have 2 to 5 kids because I need to keep up the population.

ShadyLady89

That's an excellent question. I've been trying to change my play style so couples don't immediately start having kids after they get married because sims invariable always roll whims for that, and I have to teach myself to push that off. That way things aren't hectic with my sims juggling their jobs and raising a family. I have several families with 4-6 kids, and others with 1-2. Really its just a gut feeling I have, if I find myself bored of raising babies, I know I've had too many kids, but I also play rotationally so I can jump to another house (usually a single sim) and shake off some of that raising babies stress.

PlayerSinger2010

Usually, I say once the oldest is about 4/5 days from turning into a teen is when I stop.

LadyKyn

Oh, you'll know when it's enough especially when you and your sim taking care of your kids start getting overwhelming and frustrating.
With another family with a sims couple of mine, finally getting the third child aged from toddler to child where they'r emore independent to do things on their own is definitely a blessing and I decided no more kids, since I wanted my sims to start living a bit more of their lives to have more time to themselves and throw parties and the like.

QueenofMyshuno

For me, it depends on how many families I want to play at a time. If I’m only going to play one family for that generation, then a maxed out 8-sim family is fine. If I want to play a whole community, then 1 to 2 kids works better because it’s easier to keep track of. Plus, I’ll usually want to intermarry the kids of multiple played families when they grow up, and then intermarry the next generation, and it’s not as confusing if every family just has 1 kid. If every family has 6 or more kids, then it’s hard for me to remember who is related to whom.

Keep in mind, my gameplay style is to use fillmotive and other cheats, and the goal for me is to get good screenshots. If I was playing time-management style or play lots of challenges, that would probably influence my answer. So it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Stina1701A

My magic number is 1-3 kids per family but they have gone as far as 6 kids in one household at once both biological ones and fostered.

brenleedee

I have 4 at the moment which to me is overwhelming. It would have been fine if the last two were not twins. Dealing with 4 children, the Mom and Dad, a dog and Patchy(Patchy tends to always be in the way and I don't want to get rid of him)

When I dread playing is when I know it is too many for Me, I didn't save my game last time I played because it was mischief or prank day and my Sim had his wife streak, not realizing how cold it was she died..lol so ugh all that work and I could not save it because I would have lost her.

joleaco

I roll a dice or let Siri decide how many. They do sometimes have “oops” babies, which I don’t mind at all.

orangehippogriff

This is a hard one for me. Usually, I’ll know deep down that enough is enough at 3 max, yet I’ll get the urge to try again and end up with 4. I can usually manage 4 just fine, although it does get stressful. 5 is when I quit the save, (that just happened recently.) it’s weird, because I know I should stop having babies but I just love pregnant sims so much! Haha

So, for the current generation of my legacy I’ve set myself a rule of no more than two kids. Maybe even just one. I actually like the idea of playing small families a lot, considering I’m from a small family in real life. I hope I stick to my goal

Bearpal64

I roll a dice or use a random number generator to help lead my game play decisions ^^

Mindsimscreate

Just not too many.

SimsFinest1

2 to 4 kids is manageable for me. Anything more get chaotic around the house.

elanorbreton

I am trying to keep control of myself in my games, otherwise I'd have my sims keep giving birth! In fact, so that the worlds do not get over-run with one family, I try to stick to one or two babies per family.

I remember in TS3 I did the five teen aspiration, and that family ended up almost taking over Sunset Valley with their descendants, aunts, uncles, cousins etc, and that was just from having those initial 5 kids. I got 8 generations down the line and almost everyone was part of that family or married into that family...

vancanuckfan86

It usually depends on the family and what their lifestyle fits. Usually anywhere from 1-4 is a typical number for families in my Sim World.

Stormkeep

Honestly, I don't really "decide"...it just happens how it happens.

My main control is I don't like to have new children once sims are at an age where they will be dead before the kid becomes a young adult....but even then, it can still happen (I use MCCC risky woohoo settings and don't always remember to have my sims drink the Q-36).

stilljustme2

For me, 1-3 kids are the ideal, and I try to space them out a bit (I wait to have Baby #2 till Kid #1 is a child because s/he can help entertain the toddler, then Baby #3 when #2 is a child and #1 is a teen because the teen can help with both the younger siblings (can cook meals, potty train and teach the toddler, etc.).

SheLuvsMusic

I used to be a hard core 5-8 kids kind of player back in TS3 days for some reason. Looking back on it that was insane, because now with TS4 I'll usually only have 2-3. Then again, toddlers and children seem more fleshed out in the TS4 so they're a lot more work too.

mmt3363

I mostly plan children according to the parents. Family oriented couples who have uninvolved careers, or a parent who can stay in the home without it impacting quality or life, tend to have more kids for example. Couples who have very active careers and/or traits like loner or hot headed, have fewer children or perhaps no children, and tend to have children in the adult live stage instead of while being in their mid to late young adult stage.

I guess you could say I use an RPG approach to family planning. Would those two people, or that person, with those personality traits and lifestyle have children? Would they want a lot of kids, or be a one kid home? Would they disagree about children? Is one parent more actively involved than the other? Those sorts of questions typically lead me to my decision.

Genetics can also impact children for me. I like to leave born in game sims as untouched as possible. Some couples have really poor genetics for whatever reason, so I will usually make sure they have fewer kids and therefore fewer opportunities for that genetic combination to continue within the save. And couples that have really great genetics for whatever reason, their household will end up full to capacity, because I wants those genetics to carry on to the next generation of the save.

loubyloulou

I like to let my Sims decide when and how many kids they have, so that's usually between one four.