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Why are infants and toddlers nearly impossible to take care of?

I find infants and toddlers difficult to enjoy to play with because they are too annoying, everytime an infant or toddler Sim cries for attention the adult Sims have to cancel literally everything else and prioritize their babies instead of anything else. The other thing that makes this worse is the fact that even with autonomy off, Sims will check their infants anyway. Can Maxis please fix this annoying issue soon? :disappointed:

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    KathykinsKathykins Posts: 1,900 Member
    I haven't played infants yet, so can't really say anything about them.

    I've gone through quite a few toddlers, and the way I manage is to not let caretakers take care of them at all, except baths and a bit of social. My tots are busy having fun and learning all day, between taking care of needs. I always have food in the fridge for them, and I drag the plate out so the little ones can help themselves. I always also have a night light so they can sleep well all night.

    Have to mention, I usually only play Independent toddlers, maybe also Angelic. They are easiest to handle by far. Independent tots don't even need potty training. Also have to mention, I let MCCC tuner take care of the pointless "Check toddler" interaction, meaning caretakers won't autonomously drop everything to "check on toddler" constantly. Sims are not smarter this time around, and certainly not around their offspring.
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    SweetBexiSweetBexi Posts: 148 Member
    ULIBABA66 wrote: »
    I find infants and toddlers difficult to enjoy to play with because they are too annoying, everytime an infant or toddler Sim cries for attention the adult Sims have to cancel literally everything else and prioritize their babies instead of anything else. The other thing that makes this worse is the fact that even with autonomy off, Sims will check their infants anyway. Can Maxis please fix this annoying issue soon? :disappointed:

    I posted about this recently too (thought I got my infants mixed up as toddlers) but I found it so draining! I felt like I literally couldn't do anything! I was unfortunate that my first ever science baby, and taste of the new infants, was twins!
    I ended up aging them up and I've not had a chance to play since but I admit the constant "check child " is frustrating! Especially when I was trying to get things done with the other infant and it was all just cancelled 🙄
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    mightyspritemightysprite Posts: 6,211 Member
    The "check infant" auto action interrupting attempts to care for the infant is (probably) a bug.
    https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Check-infant-toddler-interrupts-all-attempts-to-care-for/m-p/12393705

    Don't buy broken stuff
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    ULIBABA66ULIBABA66 Posts: 2,088 Member
    edited July 2023
    SweetBexi wrote: »
    ULIBABA66 wrote: »
    I find infants and toddlers difficult to enjoy to play with because they are too annoying, everytime an infant or toddler Sim cries for attention the adult Sims have to cancel literally everything else and prioritize their babies instead of anything else. The other thing that makes this worse is the fact that even with autonomy off, Sims will check their infants anyway. Can Maxis please fix this annoying issue soon? :disappointed:

    I posted about this recently too (thought I got my infants mixed up as toddlers) but I found it so draining! I felt like I literally couldn't do anything! I was unfortunate that my first ever science baby, and taste of the new infants, was twins!
    I ended up aging them up and I've not had a chance to play since but I admit the constant "check child " is frustrating! Especially when I was trying to get things done with the other infant and it was all just cancelled 🙄

    Yess same here, most actions just get cancelled because of the forced infant checking up ”idle” animation thing or whatever that is called…it seems to be a glitch too for many people…yikes :( hopefully they can fix this 🙄☹️🥺🤞
    Also nannies are broken again it seems. My Sims household keeps getting 3-4 nanny NPCs spawning and I hired just one, and every Nanny wants to check up on the same Infant or Toddler. I tried to feed an Infant Sim on a high chair but the nannies just went to the dinner room and didn't put the infant on the chair, and it seems like the infant didn't even get the milestone(?) required for high chair feeding, so maybe this is another glitch…
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    GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 29,102 Member
    Infants aren't easy in RL, either. Most of it simply requires the player to sit back, relax a bit and just tend to the wee one's needs as you would other Sims. I play on autonomous and for the most part my Infants have managed to fulfill many milestones, and some of them entirely on their own. My first go around, I did find myself stressed out, so I completely get where you're coming from. After a bit of self-talk, however, (where I decided to just relax over it) things started to go better for me. If you allow yourself to not make everything perfect (I am a perfectionist to the enth-degree), then you may find it's not so bad. By the time I hit the second kid (in my Sims' family) which were twins! I found myself having a ton of fun, believe it or not.

    Just keep them alive and in your household. That's the overall goal. And have FUN.
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    Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,584 Member
    Infants are difficult to take care of, as they are in real life.

    I find it helps if I select the infant and then ask to be fed, put to bed,... If the infant gives the task, the adults obey nicely. If I select the adult to do an infant related task, they sometimes don't actually complete it.
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    Umbreon12Umbreon12 Posts: 916 Member
    I played a bit of Toddlers before, which can be hard.
    I played longer for the Infants, which is also hard.
    For me, I try and make the adults outnumber the Infants or Toddlers. It makes it easier to get them taken care of, and if the parent needs to rest, I can pass the care on to another family member.
    For single parents with infants/toddlers, which are all science babies so far, I tend to have them focus on them when they are awake, but when they take naps, the parent either catches up on their sleep or do what they need to do.
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    becks1112becks1112 Posts: 919 Member
    I find infants much harder than toddlers. My toddlers pretty much do their own thing without much parent interaction. Infants need constant attention.
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    RedDestiny92RedDestiny92 Posts: 7,851 Member
    I don't have issues with infants or tots as a big family player, literally the more the merrier, I got used to it. However, I have noticed some sims may be interrupted more than others for who knows why. What I do in those households is take the kid to their room and lock the door then teleport the older sim out so they dont glitch inside the door and get to the baby anyways. I hope we get some other tot items to keep them busy one day, maybe a kit, but if nothing else works total lock down or just straight up take the door away.
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    phantasmkissphantasmkiss Posts: 1,520 Member
    edited July 2023
    Oh my plumbob, yes. I finally played them, and with two infants and three adults, only one adult at a time ever had high needs. It was a miserable experience for all of us.

    I started having flashbacks to when my daughter was a newborn, and life was catching naps any time she fell asleep, and giving her a bath while still covered in mess myself, and noooooo, this was too much reality for me, I wanted a cute wiggly game thing! This is why I never bought the Parenthood pack, homework and trying to teach values is Too Much Reality for fun playtime. o.o #singleparenting

    My current infants are spending all their time on the playmat, looking at toys. I hired a butler to help, but all she did was stand nearby and occasionally change a diaper. Until the infants got old enough to scoot, at which point I can have them ask her to be fed or put to bed. I am a GOOD PARENT, and I can DO THIS without cheats! *curls up in the corner with a juice box and teddy bear for comfort*
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    mightyspritemightysprite Posts: 6,211 Member
    I always feel bad when my infants go to sleep on their own on the floor, but then, it doesn't seem to hurt anything.
    It's just not something my RL infant would have done, EVER.

    This game won't remotely resemble RL infant care at least until they regularly make your adult sim stand there for 3 hours trying to soothe to sleep, infant finally asleep for 2 minutes, adult leaves room, infant immediately wakes up and starts screaming.
    :)
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    rudolpharudolpha Posts: 1,009 Member
    Only just started playing infants and so far they are not too hard, especially since I'm not trying to achieve milestones. They can be time consuming so you look forward to when they sleep. Toddlers only need attention when young, if you want to potty train them and get them to walk down stairs, after that you just leave food plates out for them and they can manage on their own. There was an awful bug some years back that affected toddlers. They were constantly in the red and I feared for their lives! But it got fixed. So I hope the current bug for infants is dealt with properly ASAP.
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    ULIBABA66ULIBABA66 Posts: 2,088 Member
    Thank you for the replies to my post everyone! Happy Simming <3
    And yes, for me it is a problem because I love to play with farms and eco-sustainable ranches and there are MANY things to care and worry about, especially the farm animals, like chickens, cows and llamas, they literally need attention all the time, and now horses and goats and sheep too. It is impossible for me to enjoy playing with bigger households with adults, infants, toddlers and farm animals without having to take care of them 24/7, also it seems like the feeder object isn't upgradeable to become an automated feeder so goats, sheep and horses won't need to get taken away from my extremely busy Sims :(
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    momelimberhammomelimberham Posts: 75 Member
    Through the years as people were begging for sims 4 babies that were more interactive, I always thought "No way, toddlers are already so annoying to take care of in this game, don't give us another life stage that adult sims have to micromanage to the point where the adult sims can barely function."

    So then infants got added and everyone complained "oh infants are so annoying to take care of because adult sims have to micromanage them so much that the adult sims can barely function." So I kind of think the whole infant stage getting added was a monkey's paw finger curling down.

    I actually find infants pretty easy to take care of - if you have a "can breastfeed" sim, then you don't have to deal with bottles. The infants can't walk so they don't get up to mischief, and you can just leave them on the playmat thing and they'll sleep there and then wake up later and play with the mobile.

    What I find even easier is to simply cheat the needs of the infants and toddlers to be green so they can do whatever while my adult sims do other things.

    I know infants/toddlers are difficult to take care of in real life, but with how things are in the sims - you know, people taking 30 minutes to pee, standing around chatting while ignoring the thing you told them to do, whatever - it does seem like they're OVERLY hard to take care of. So, again, that's why I just cheat.

    I'm at baby number 43 of a personal challenge (wherein I get the mama sim pregnant basically immediately after the birth of a baby) so, you know, lots of overlapping newborns/infants/toddlers. I've discovered one tip is to hire a butler. Every time I've had a nanny to help with the newborns/infants/toddlers, the nanny basically does absolutely nothing except tutor homework and cook food - doesn't clean, doesn't TAKE CARE OF THE BABIES. But the BUTLER sure does. Butler cleans, does gardening, goes over to tend to a crying baby efficiently.
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    netney52netney52 Posts: 1,215 Member
    Toddlers are ok just make sure they have enough toys to play with to build their skills and drag a plate of food from the fridge for them to eat from. This usually fulfils their needs. All adult sims need to do is potty train them until level 2 and bathe them. Infants are different and so much harder to manage they make toddlers seem so easy.
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    WildIrishBansheeWildIrishBanshee Posts: 2,138 Member
    Infants are a bit harder than toddlers, for sure - but not too bad, if you let go of perfectionism. Especially with more than one infant - let them sleep where they lie, for one thing! And let each adult do what they can.
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    AineAine Posts: 3,046 Member
    edited July 2023
    I don't think it's that hard - what annoys is when I've queued up an action and the autonomous system just overrides it. Just let me do it for crying out loud! I get that the game wants to auto take care of infants, but please don't override my own way of playing, it's super obnoxious and makes everything take 100 times longer. If I've queued up everything needed to take care of the infant, the game doesn't recognize it, and decides to 'do it for me'. Ugh.
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    GrimlyFiendishGrimlyFiendish Posts: 730 Member
    Honestly my way of taking care of infants is to basically shove them in a high chair, feed them lots of food, give them a couple of cuddles, whack em in a bubble bath, wait until the moment when they get a 'well cared for' or 'happy' moodlet and then age them up as fast as possible. Toddlers just get skills cheated and aged immediately. I used to do the whole toddler stage is so cute thing, but I got bored with it really fast. Infants can be fun for a little while, but again I got bored too easily with them. If I was to play the infant stage for longer then I would definitely say allocating just one parent to do all the work makes it easier, as does picking an easier care trait like 'calm'.
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    ArzekialArzekial Posts: 667 Member
    I cheat. I just set the parenting skill to 10 on the parents and then don't have to worry about it. haha
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    RPGTabbycatRPGTabbycat Posts: 48 Member
    I usually get the diaper blowout milestone and sleep through the night milestone and then just cheat and turn off needs for everyone. I can only handle so much of it before it drives me batty.
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    OnendOnliYazzieOnendOnliYazzie Posts: 1,375 Member
    I’m currently playing with infants fully for the first time since they first came out and of course my sims first born got the snuggly sleeper quirk so putting her down to bed in her crib was always stressful and then when she was able to try food in a high chair of course she had to get the picky eater quirk and of course out of all the baby food and finger foods only liked TWO things 🙄 and just when I thought I was getting to the end of my stressful infant stage my sims go and have another baby and now their first born daughter is about to age up to a toddler & their second born will be an infant. The infant stage was quite stressful for me my first real go at playing with them but it’s also kind of realistic. I did find the check infant thing quite annoying as well especially when my sims would already have done the interaction such as change diaper or feeding her. I’m hoping their second born won’t be as stressful as their first and that raising an infant and a toddler won’t make me want to pull my hair out haha
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    FreddyFox1234FreddyFox1234 Posts: 597 Member
    In my rotation I just had a sim week playing a family with three kids: two toddlers and one newborn who grew up into an infant early in the week. It was intense but not overwhelming, and I found it fun. The mum is focused on her career so gets out the house every workday. She’s level 10 in cooking so makes loads of nice food when she’s at home. The dad is a freelance writer so does a bit of work when the kids are quiet or when the mum’s at home in the evenings. The toddlers are pretty independent now as they’ve mastered all the skills except one, so they can play together, go to the potty or go to bed by themselves. I didn’t bother with the high chair but just put food out for them to grab whey they were hungry - that helps a lot! And my infant happily turned out to be calm so he’s not too demanding. The toddlers’ hygiene got low at times but that’s OK. I think the parents could do with a short break away by themselves but I’ll save that for the next time I play them.
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    jamie2112jamie2112 Posts: 86 Member
    I had a house with 2 babies and 4 toddlers once, and I had to make their parents spend most of their time taking care of them. I hired a nanny and still had to spend most of their time caring for them!
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    FacellaFacella Posts: 22 Member
    I'm doing the 100 baby challenge, so have played with lots of infants so far. I don't own Growing Together, so no clue how that impacts gameplay. Toddlers are easy, keep them busy with building skills, drag food out of the fridge so they can help themselves and they're good to go on their own. Just need potty training and the occasional bath every other day or so.

    There are a few things I find really annoying about infants. First, the food you try in the high chair isn't very good at filling hunger. Even if they love it and eat everything, they're still not full. And recently my adult sim ALWAYS takes the infant back out of the crib after putting them to bed. SO annoying, just let them get their sleep! I also hate how "Help try first baby food" makes the adult/teenage sim cancel whatever they're doing atm and go to the infant. Also, they sometimes don't do things in the order I tell them to. Like, I tell the adult sim to change the diaper, then put to bed and then play a lullaby. Instead, they'll put to bed, change the diaper, and then play a lullaby, leaving the infant screaming on the floor.
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