I like to see how talented I can make a sim by the time they reach YA.
I keep wanting to do a bad childhood, but just can't help trying to keep them happy lol
I play each stage long enough so that I accomplish what I want for them.
Toddler - max out all skills
children - A in school, do 3 out of 4 aspirations
Teens - A in school, maybe finish one aspiration
I might or might not cheat to finish up a life stage so I can move on.
Oh, yes. When my happy couple - a remake of my longest-lived TS3 couple - were wrapping up their first Aspirations, both spontaneously wished to have children together. That sold me on Parenthood, and I honestly feel TS4 Toddlers are amazing. They raised three sons, played through all stages of Toddler, Child & Teen, and have fulfilled their Family-related Aspirations, except for the fourth grandchild - who I have planned for, but not yet conceived.
I love the tiered learning and skills, and the Parenthood Values system. I love seeing what my kids enjoy doing, and learning who they are. They have USUALLY been smart about only Making Messes in the art area, or outdoors, and I usually let them, since Responsibility is easy to teach and learn.
Child stage is probably the slowest, because it's mostly school, and eking out skills where I can. But on the far side of that is Teen years, dating, and Messing Around, if they can get away with it. I also usually have a good handle on their personalities by then, and can choose appropriate Aspirations for the long term.
Depends. That's why I voted "other". If it's one of my main households, I love playing through all stages of toddler through teen. If it's a secondary, or one to make as an NPC household, I fast forward it as much as possible to get back to my main characters.
Since I have long age lengths on, most won't age up too quickly. A birthday cake is perfect when ready to age someone up. Otherwise I find it's a panic to grind them up before time runs out. And it's impossible to play multiple households in a short life span setting.
I find toddlers and children boring. Maybe I'd find them more interesting if they could do more than talk non-stop and interrupt their parents and siblings. They have some limited skills they can learn which gives them a boost as they get older. By the time that they're young adults, there's not much left for them to do except start a career, find a suitable spouse, and then start cranking out kids. I don't know why, but I've never found that appealing.
It sounds like playing a legacy makes the process more interesting. I'll have to try that.
I'm perfectionist so I usually try to max their toddler skills and get A at school and whatever but after that I usually age them up cause idk I dun like kids and I usually end up just planning their adult lives
it may also be because i play my sims like tv drama series and the kids always just get sent outside to play when adults do stuff so they are like minor role but when they adults i play them like lead roles so i keep wanting to age them up to get to their adult life drama
I'm perfectionist so I usually try to max their toddler skills and get A at school and whatever but after that I usually age them up cause idk I dun like kids and I usually end up just planning their adult lives
it may also be because i play my sims like tv drama series and the kids always just get sent outside to play when adults do stuff so they are like minor role but when they adults i play them like lead roles so i keep wanting to age them up to get to their adult life drama
I like the challenge of playing big families with sims of all ages included. I don't see a point in only playing one life stage. Defeats the purpose of the game in my opinion.
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I'd have to say having Parenthood and Kids Room packs have helped a lot with the get bored with the life stage issue.
With parenthood you develop who they are and how they will perform as adults.
With kids room stuff it adds a little more stuff for kids, but just a little bit more.
I've also started something new with one of my active households. He is a single dad that has 4 children (as of now two are toddlers and two are babies). None of them live with him full time and there are three mother's involved. The oldest one I move in between the active household and his mother (Kayla Flemming; now you know why he isn't with her lol). I move him in to get his skills up and take care of him for a week and he goes back Sunday morning to his mom's house. When its the last week of the month I send 1,000 simoleons to his mother's house along with him (like child support).
The second oldest Ryland is a toddler and Seth gets him on Holidays because his mother lives in Selvadorada and won't be able to let him visit as much plus she has his youngest child as well and can't make the trips with Ryland like she use to because she has the new baby girl named Carol. This mother gets 2,000 in child support.
The third child is from a local mail person and her child is a baby and isn't ready for Seth to meet him yet; they are working on arrangements for him to be over every weekend. She gets 1,000 simoleons a month.
So changing up stuff like that in your game can help. The oldest Gerard's skills for toddler are almost maxed; just need to get his imagination to 5 and its at 3. Then I'll work on Ryland.
When I was playing, I hadn't gotten all of the packs for toddlers through teens, so I just started with young adults. But now that I have most of the packs I want, I haven't tried to play toddlers through teens yet. No interest in gameplay anymore.
I like to play all the life stages except for elders, they are boring, thats why I make them pregnant, before they age up xD so they always have already adult kids and toddlers.
Normally I just let them do, whatever they want but lately I try to maximize all toddler skills and all children aspirations. When they are teens, I sometimes try to make the teen with the perfect manners and what else there is, or all the opposite, so the worst characters.
I let the children make sone friends and love to play them and discover the parks. My favorite is the park in Oasis Spring. I let them meet with friends to play voidcritter battles or let them play with this theater thingy. Sometimes I like them to get all scout badges.
The only thing I really despise is the mess they alwaxs make. They have so many toys, a drawing table, anything, but they decide to make a mess behind the house... 🙄 But I like the fact, that they start to clean up on their own, when their parents praise them for doing the dishes.
Often I let them marry their childhood best friend as soon as they age up to young adult.
Some go to uni, but most of them just have kids and a job, I feel like I really dont play uni that much... and even if, most times they already married and try to keep up with studying, 2 - 3 toddlers and a part time job 😂
Yes, but it tends to be teens unless I’m playing my legacy. I actually love playing kids - creating my characters’ backdrop is so much fun. Teens and toddlers for the same reason, but I age babies up right after the birth.
Toddlers are fun if you play them as your main family. You don't need packs. I can attest for this since my first character, Teresa Calhouni, had triplets. A girl and two boys. When I started the game. Only base game! Wow! Had to hire a nanny and get Don to move in. I had to look up what toddlers need.
Why would you not play with every stage. There is something in every stage to experience and play with. Aging them up to a certain stage is something I never do. I appreciate all the ages and whatever game play I can find or come up with for them. It would also screw my story if I just age them up to my liking at that moment. I like to play as realistic as possible.
Sims getting pregnant is fun, cause there is a story behind and never knowing the gender is adding excitement into my gameplay. Decorating the nursery meanwhile is a very nice thing to play around with while you wait for the baby to arrive.
Then babies in the cribs. They are a bit boring and don't have enough freedom to play with, so that needs to be worked on. But I still do not age them up all though I think 10 days on long life is WAY too long for the few interactions you get with them. At least they need to get out of their crib and have kids interact with them as well.
Toddlers are much fun! But I wish their traits would actually have more impact on their future life. I spend weeks raising them, giving them a certain personality and then when they are teens, all the traits should be replaced to something else that isn't even the same as what I gave them as a toddler/kid.
Kids also need improvement as they need to get out of the house more. Simple games like playing tag and just doing what children do. They come up with the weirdest games from nonsense and I'd like to see that in my game one day. Also children are so limited compared to what YA can do. Most activities are out of reach for them. Why can't they cook with an adult? Why can't they ride a bike? Why can't they paint? But hey, they can go to a bar at 2:00 AM, no problem there.
Teens needed my creative mind setting, cause I never really knew how to make them act like proper teens. They can't get caught, they can't get grounded, they can't be naughty other than stupid childish pranks that adults can do as well, they don't have prom or any social event. They really mean nothing, so I created a bunch of community lots that add into my gameplay. Such as a gym that serves like a prom that I set in a calendar, hang out spot where teens can drink coffee and study, malls, hangout spot at an ice cream truck etc. It becomes more fun to play with them even though EA still needs to improve the heck out of them.
I do my best to enjoy every life stage, even with the limitations of The sims 4. But in no way I would age them up, because of lacking features. It's just not realistic.
No, I simply do not have the patience to follow a sim from being a toddler. Some times I have my sims start as teens to get the polite and responsible traits when they become young adults, so they get a relationship boost when introducing themselves to other sims, and will work hard on default.
I mainly play them to get a good backstory for my sims. The Toddler stage is a lot of fun because of all of the trouble you can get into with them compared to other games in the series. Child is a little dull, but I've been able to have some fun by setting up their relationships with their parents, friends, and siblings. Teen is where I bust out the conflicts between the kids and their parents, have (or try to have) wild parties and other teenaged mischief, and final preparations for adulthood.
I HATE the toddler stage. Used to have a mod that skipped it entirely. But when that became outdated, I just age up toddler immediately. I bought Sims 4 orginally because it DID NOT have toddlers.
Yes I love the toddlers and start with them when I make families. I want more for the young life stages. The fun is Make a mess action or when they break my toilet.
Why wouldn’t I?! Those are my favorite stages! I feel like it’s when I really get to develop my sims’ personalities, stories, and plans for the future, as well as find them love interests!
I voted yes (unsure of how to put that in my post like everyone above did)
I love getting to see what my sims look like as they age up, the silly outfits that are pre-generated for them. And I just absolutely love getting to play out their full storylines. Though I do have one family with twin kids that I never want to age up because I don't want the gameplay on them to end haha.
I like seeing my Sims grow, both physically and emotionally, and I just like playing with kids! Because I'm a storyteller, playing through every life stage really helps me to tell their story and define who they are.
Like a lot of Simmers, I have a legacy. Each generation I pick one child I want to be my main Sim and focus on them.
I sometimes age up siblings, or kill parents and move the child in with my matriarch (who is a vampire with a large estate), but the child I'm playing has to age up normally.
If I start getting bored, sometimes I'll change the lifespan to short, but they still go through every stage.
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I keep wanting to do a bad childhood, but just can't help trying to keep them happy lol
Toddler - max out all skills
children - A in school, do 3 out of 4 aspirations
Teens - A in school, maybe finish one aspiration
I might or might not cheat to finish up a life stage so I can move on.
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I love the tiered learning and skills, and the Parenthood Values system. I love seeing what my kids enjoy doing, and learning who they are. They have USUALLY been smart about only Making Messes in the art area, or outdoors, and I usually let them, since Responsibility is easy to teach and learn.
Child stage is probably the slowest, because it's mostly school, and eking out skills where I can. But on the far side of that is Teen years, dating, and Messing Around, if they can get away with it. I also usually have a good handle on their personalities by then, and can choose appropriate Aspirations for the long term.
Since I have long age lengths on, most won't age up too quickly. A birthday cake is perfect when ready to age someone up. Otherwise I find it's a panic to grind them up before time runs out. And it's impossible to play multiple households in a short life span setting.
It sounds like playing a legacy makes the process more interesting. I'll have to try that.
it may also be because i play my sims like tv drama series and the kids always just get sent outside to play when adults do stuff so they are like minor role but when they adults i play them like lead roles so i keep wanting to age them up to get to their adult life drama
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Interesting!
With parenthood you develop who they are and how they will perform as adults.
With kids room stuff it adds a little more stuff for kids, but just a little bit more.
I've also started something new with one of my active households. He is a single dad that has 4 children (as of now two are toddlers and two are babies). None of them live with him full time and there are three mother's involved. The oldest one I move in between the active household and his mother (Kayla Flemming; now you know why he isn't with her lol). I move him in to get his skills up and take care of him for a week and he goes back Sunday morning to his mom's house. When its the last week of the month I send 1,000 simoleons to his mother's house along with him (like child support).
The second oldest Ryland is a toddler and Seth gets him on Holidays because his mother lives in Selvadorada and won't be able to let him visit as much plus she has his youngest child as well and can't make the trips with Ryland like she use to because she has the new baby girl named Carol. This mother gets 2,000 in child support.
The third child is from a local mail person and her child is a baby and isn't ready for Seth to meet him yet; they are working on arrangements for him to be over every weekend. She gets 1,000 simoleons a month.
So changing up stuff like that in your game can help. The oldest Gerard's skills for toddler are almost maxed; just need to get his imagination to 5 and its at 3. Then I'll work on Ryland.
Normally I just let them do, whatever they want but lately I try to maximize all toddler skills and all children aspirations. When they are teens, I sometimes try to make the teen with the perfect manners and what else there is, or all the opposite, so the worst characters.
I let the children make sone friends and love to play them and discover the parks. My favorite is the park in Oasis Spring. I let them meet with friends to play voidcritter battles or let them play with this theater thingy. Sometimes I like them to get all scout badges.
The only thing I really despise is the mess they alwaxs make. They have so many toys, a drawing table, anything, but they decide to make a mess behind the house... 🙄 But I like the fact, that they start to clean up on their own, when their parents praise them for doing the dishes.
Often I let them marry their childhood best friend as soon as they age up to young adult.
Some go to uni, but most of them just have kids and a job, I feel like I really dont play uni that much... and even if, most times they already married and try to keep up with studying, 2 - 3 toddlers and a part time job 😂
Edited because I cannot spell.
Sims getting pregnant is fun, cause there is a story behind and never knowing the gender is adding excitement into my gameplay. Decorating the nursery meanwhile is a very nice thing to play around with while you wait for the baby to arrive.
Then babies in the cribs. They are a bit boring and don't have enough freedom to play with, so that needs to be worked on. But I still do not age them up all though I think 10 days on long life is WAY too long for the few interactions you get with them. At least they need to get out of their crib and have kids interact with them as well.
Toddlers are much fun! But I wish their traits would actually have more impact on their future life. I spend weeks raising them, giving them a certain personality and then when they are teens, all the traits should be replaced to something else that isn't even the same as what I gave them as a toddler/kid.
Kids also need improvement as they need to get out of the house more. Simple games like playing tag and just doing what children do. They come up with the weirdest games from nonsense and I'd like to see that in my game one day. Also children are so limited compared to what YA can do. Most activities are out of reach for them. Why can't they cook with an adult? Why can't they ride a bike? Why can't they paint? But hey, they can go to a bar at 2:00 AM, no problem there.
Teens needed my creative mind setting, cause I never really knew how to make them act like proper teens. They can't get caught, they can't get grounded, they can't be naughty other than stupid childish pranks that adults can do as well, they don't have prom or any social event. They really mean nothing, so I created a bunch of community lots that add into my gameplay. Such as a gym that serves like a prom that I set in a calendar, hang out spot where teens can drink coffee and study, malls, hangout spot at an ice cream truck etc. It becomes more fun to play with them even though EA still needs to improve the heck out of them.
I do my best to enjoy every life stage, even with the limitations of The sims 4. But in no way I would age them up, because of lacking features. It's just not realistic.
I love getting to see what my sims look like as they age up, the silly outfits that are pre-generated for them. And I just absolutely love getting to play out their full storylines. Though I do have one family with twin kids that I never want to age up because I don't want the gameplay on them to end haha.
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I sometimes age up siblings, or kill parents and move the child in with my matriarch (who is a vampire with a large estate), but the child I'm playing has to age up normally.
If I start getting bored, sometimes I'll change the lifespan to short, but they still go through every stage.