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Parenthood - Should I get it?
luciusstorm
Posts: 1,752 Member
I gather the Parenthood pack is fairly popular (at least, a recent Sims Community poll ranked it as the best game pack).
Now, I am a big fan of "coming of age" stories. In fact, supernatural or sci fi coming of age stories are my personal guilty pleasure (which is probably why my own SimLit story is one). I'm wondering how well Parenthood fits with growing up and these "coming of age" stories.
At the same time, I must confess I have avoided the Parenthood pack almost from the moment I heard of it. As a parent, I know that every parent has their own ideas of what "good parenting" is. While I do not want to hold that real life debate here, I know that the game - being a game - has to have its own answer to that. The very nature of the pack seems to require parenting interactions that lead to "good" or "bad" outcomes. I worry about how I'm going to feel about that. (Full disclosure, I can't finish the aspiration from the Cats and Dogs expansion because I don't like that "cat jumping on the counter" is considered a "bad" behavior that should be disciplined.
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So, I guess my question comes down to two parts -
Now, I am a big fan of "coming of age" stories. In fact, supernatural or sci fi coming of age stories are my personal guilty pleasure (which is probably why my own SimLit story is one). I'm wondering how well Parenthood fits with growing up and these "coming of age" stories.
At the same time, I must confess I have avoided the Parenthood pack almost from the moment I heard of it. As a parent, I know that every parent has their own ideas of what "good parenting" is. While I do not want to hold that real life debate here, I know that the game - being a game - has to have its own answer to that. The very nature of the pack seems to require parenting interactions that lead to "good" or "bad" outcomes. I worry about how I'm going to feel about that. (Full disclosure, I can't finish the aspiration from the Cats and Dogs expansion because I don't like that "cat jumping on the counter" is considered a "bad" behavior that should be disciplined.
)So, I guess my question comes down to two parts -
- Would Parenthood add dimensions to my "coming of age" stories?
- Is the Sims definition of "good parenting" ingrained into the pack such that, if I disagree with it, I'm going to have a problem enjoying the pack?
Fate is a riddle and we choose our own answer. Wyrd Girls
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Comments
Just recently starting to get enough of the pantless sims (that pack must have the best gym - outfits ever) in gyms. When ever I download a sim, it usually has gym pants at least from parenthood
Had topless sims sometimes too, because of that.
Just curious, if there is tiny tiny chance I might some day have it.
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
I'm not sure that Parenthood would add anything significant for storytelling.
As for aspirations, the Super Parent aspiration does require you to have one child age up to YA with 3 positive character traits. But it's really not hard to achieve at least with one kid. Your other kids can be as awful as you want.
This is me. As long as the skill is high enough, it will tell you which values it affects. I go for what they need or what isn't as easy to raise or if a value is lowered, I know what will be easier for me to raise it again quicker. Some are easier because I am already having them do things that effect a certain value and using the chance cards allows me give little boosts to values that I need to do something extra for. Doing some of the tasks for Scouting and the tasks for child aspirations will also cross over to help build values.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
And even with the pop-ups, after a while you'll start to remember which interaction affects which character traits, so even if your parent sim hasn't maxed out parenting, you can still direct some options. I just wish that Empathy was a bit easier to build up.
Parenthood also introduced School Projects, which I've used to help build a sim's childhood (and before HSY, teen) friendships (3 or 4 sims can work on a project together) Just be sure you have a lot of space for it, as they take up 6 tiles until they're complete.
Sims can only influence children towards negative character values if they already have one of the negative traits. Only bad mannered sims can encourage farting, for example, well mannered and neutral sims can only discourage it. So even though the game doesn't directly judge the player, there's a clear bias towards "correct" play. In an unmodded game it is also much harder to raise a sim towards the negative character traits than towards the positive ones.
You can use the new "Ask for advice" feature in very different ways. If you answer your child/teen's dilemma from the parents point of view, the child will gain or lose points for two of the five character values.
However, with high Parenting skill you get a preview which values will be affected, so if you already know that your young sim will be Empathic, for example, you can always choose the answer that will raise their Empathy. That alleviates the issue of children getting programmed a little and lets them be their own characters.
If you play without free will, you will be locked out of the "Ask for advice" interaction, which is imo the most important tool in this pack. In this case you should get the "No ask for advice" mod, that disables autonomy for this interaction and makes it user-directed instead.
When you use a discipline action (grounding from object use, friends etc.) or give a young sim timeout, I've seen sims become focused from that and the accompanying moodlet even said how helpful that was. It was incredibly cringe, and I don't use the punishments anymore. That isn't to say my parents don't discipline their teens in their own ways (many of my sims of any age are not nice people), I just strongly dislike the scripted ingame punishment interactions.
The Responsibility value I like to think of as Work Ethic instead. It can be a bit annoying to read what the game considers responsible behaviour, but after flicking that mental switch I was fine with it.
With that out of the way, the CAS and BB are really good. When the pack was new, Backyard stuff and Parenthood were my favorite combination.
This pack has young sims doing things like volunteering, writing in journals, listening to music to calm down and some new social interactions that build or reduce character. They can also set the table which is a way to actually make sure that sims sit down for a meal together. It's a good idea to set the table for a holiday meal, for example.
I would say it is somewhat open-ended because you can take different interpretations of how parents should encourage children to turn out depending on what you emphasize with the character values. You can opt for a strict parent encouraging responsibility or a more lenient friendly parent who is in-tune with a child's emotions. You can instead go for raising ill-mannered, cursing brats if you want. I haven't so I don't know what it is like but you basically wouldn't correct them and wouldn't encourage any manners or responsibility or emotional control. Also, getting in arguments and doing mean interactions will make kids or teens "worse".
Not mentioned by anyone else I think, is that this pack does offer some interactions among adult family members after children have grown up. They have new social interactions with their parents and siblings such as "deep personal conversations" and "give family advice". I use these a lot to continue the sense that sim family members know each other and are close even when they have grown up. It distinguishes families from random sims. Again, you can combine it with other childhood or family-oriented packs and you end up with ways to differentiate families from each other. I would say it pairs with Kids' Room, Backyard Stuff, HSY, and obviously now, Growing Together. You end up with various activities that individuate kids & teens.
I’m not a parent IRL and have 0 insight concerning that part, plus I rarely play as a parent in TS4. I never completed any of the aspirations.
However…I personally find that having access to the character value reward traits does add a lot to my storytelling. These hidden traits come with new social interactions, both positive and negative. I would typically skip the “rearing kids” part and give my young adults parenthood traits via…I’m going to say it - cheats. My main sims are never at their best behavior, which is reflected in their negative traits, such as being argumentative, irresponsible or having bad manners. They belch and fart at the most inappropriate times and give rude introductions. Sims around them like them less, which can be challenging when you’re trying to get stuff done. They can crush other sims’ dreams. Ofcourse that’s not everyone’s thing, but I’m the kind of guy who WANTS sims to be a little more edgy, and parenthood really helps with that. It’s by no means perfect, but it helps.
Other PROs:
I feel indifferent towards phases & mood swings; I still haven’t figured out whether I like them or not.
CONS:
The lack of consequences in this game is one of its biggest issues- it makes everything feel rather bland.
That said, Parenthood still adds that little extra flavor to my stories and I wouldn’t want to give it up!
EDIT: ( my goodness..,the grammar police was chasing me- but I’m afraid I won’t get it right tonight. 😆)
That's exactly why I like Sims 4 curfew better than the Sims 3 version.
Sims 3 dictates what my society looks like: there is mandatory curfew and it is enforced by the police. They always know where everyone is and home in on them from anywhere in town. They even grab a teenager from the street when he just wants to cross it to the wellness center right across before school. The parents have no say in how they react, they will autonomously scold the child.
In Sims 4 Responsibility value ticks down the longer the young sim breaks curfew. If I want my parents to care, I wouldn't sent them to bed while their kiddo is still missing. I can always direct them to be as angry as they want manually or decide that they don't care. It's my game, my characters, my rules.
It is just super packed with game play options. If you love playing with families, I think it’s a must have.
I 100% agree with you that mandatory curfew should not be a thing. Sims 4 gives us more freedom this way. My game, my rules, absolutely.
I just don’t feel that this curfew mechanism is very balanced.
I personally miss the curfew police and wish we had a toggle to switch on/ off NPCs like this, the same way we have weather specific toggles or an option to turn off the celebrity system. In TS3 I can have my teens dodge the curfew police ( or the graffiti police ). That is the challenging and fun part for me, to try not to get caught. Unfortunately, in TS4 there’s no system like that in place at all.
I don’t send the parents to bed. They do that themselves. They’d do anything except scold the kid that arrives home late. They used to do this a lot more when the pack was released, nowadays the kid rarely gets reprimanded autonomously, regardless of parental skill level.
See, I already got the parents to activate the bulletin board, shouldn’t that be enough to trigger certain behavior? If I want them to be lenient parents I’d have them ignore the bulletin board completely by not setting the curfew clock to a specific time. Curfew doesn’t exist in a household in which no one cares about who does what and when. But I have to set the house rules through the parents. So when I play as a kid or as a teen, and mischievously stay out after curfew, I would like the parents to act accordingly, especially when they’re members of my active household. I don’t always want to direct my sims, I play with full autonomy on. I don’t always want to tell the parents what to do. I prefer to be in control to some extent, but I want the game to simulate behavior based on whatever traits and likes/ dislikes I give my sims. I want the game to surprise me, but in a logical way, if that makes sense.
I wish the character values pop ups would let you see the kid's stats for the relevant category at the time, but unless you happen to be playing that specific child at the time, you can't.
I like Sims 4 version better too, though a variant where you 1) have beat cops and 2) have to have your teen or child sim actually cross their path, rather than having the cops basically hunt them down, wouldn't bother me. I'd still want it to be the player's call on how the parents reacted, of course. And it should still be on a toggle for if your society even has a curfew or not.
What bothers me about the Sims 4 curfew board is that you can't set it by sim, so your child sims and teen sims have the same curfew, and you can't "reward" a more responsible teen with a later curfew (say for a job) than their troublemaking sibling. And you can't vary it by day, so no having a later curfew on, say, prom night if you have HSY, unless you remember to change it yourself.
So I usually don't bother with it at all.
Childhood phases almost never happen for me. Neat idea, but they're so rare that I don't really have an opinion on them. I like the teen moodswings, which are much more common. But emotions are so incredibly easy to manipulate in this game. Mess-making would be a cute bit of chaos, if NPC kids didn't do it all the time on public lots, regardless of context.
I'd say the main reason to get this pack is the side content. Journals are a good way to build the Writing skill and control emotions, and it adds a touch of character. The table-setting mechanic is incredibly useful for making sure all your sims sit at the table together. School projects are great. The BB is pretty fun, the CAS isn't bad.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
🐲🐲🐲🐲
I get the bear one for kids all the time, and my teens get the loud one a lot.
For me, although there are a few bugbears, I wouldn't want to play without the pack,
That’s a good point. I never thought about this since I rarely deal with more than one kid per active household. When I do, they’d be the same age, so the same rules apply to both.
True. It’s the mess making NPC toddlers and kids that can cause a bit of trouble. It’s very easy to get cross with those little buggers, and I believe an active sim can’t really say anything about it either if they’re not the kid’s guardian, or can they? I never had that option. I’d usually demand others to clean the floor with their ginormous mop.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the paint splashes were mud colored, but it’s all those horrid primary colors that make my lovely public lots look truly dreadful.
I still think there are plenty of good reasons to invest in the pack, but it all depends on individual play style. 👍🏼
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
The build buy is good. I like the smart fridge for some homes, and a couple of other features. I would think Growing Together is a better pack for gameplay.
With Parenthood, everyone once an a while a dialogue box shows up saying something with a few options to choice, it doesnt matter which you choice, it always a good choice. I don't bother reading it, I just click whatever. It goes a point towards you being a good parent- whatever that means.
It's not my cup of tea. BUT. I still think you want ever pack. I would get them packs in order of you niche and interest. If you're big on family gameplay, you will like it more than something that doesnt appeal to you.