How can you raise five/six children?
I been playing TS3 very recently. So far my first gen was a single mother in medical career raising a daughter of Xander Clavell who is now a young adult. Now I'm moving onto 2nd gen with Xander's ...
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My sims never have trouble raising a bunch of kids, even all in a row. I don't use the store objects either, and often enough, one parent does almost all the work. It does help a lot if that parent is self-employed though. I let the other one tend to their day job and pitch in when available, or sometimes not at all, depending on the story line in my head.
The thing that makes this easiest for me is teaching the kids their skills as efficiently as possible. Toddlers learn skills from sims with the Family Oriented trait much more quickly than normal. And like other sims, toddlers learn faster when their mood is high. So I try to max out mood and have the FO sim do most or all of the skill teaching. For the mood:
It's therefore easy to max out a toddler's mood, and combining that with a FO sim, a toddler can learn to walk or talk in about 2:15, and to potty in 1.5 tries. I don't do all of the above, just enough of what's convenient to get close to the max.
Toddlers can also read books on their own, and they build relationships with each other or with children when playing with the dollhouse, so it's easy for them to start out friends with their older siblings too.
The thing that makes this easiest for me is teaching the kids their skills as efficiently as possible. Toddlers learn skills from sims with the Family Oriented trait much more quickly than normal. And like other sims, toddlers learn faster when their mood is high. So I try to max out mood and have the FO sim do most or all of the skill teaching. For the mood:
- Pureed high quality food gives the same 8 hour moodlet as it would for other sims. Put the kid in the high chair and have a blender on the lot, and you can make them almost anything. I only use this if I'm desperate.
- Having a blast (+40)
- Stereo with the Improve Speakers upgrade, playing their favorite station (+40 for the most expensive stereo)
- Fresh or Very Fresh clothing, from changing clothes (+15 or +25)
- Squeaky clean, from changing their diaper, even if they've already learned to potty (+10)
- Toddlers with the Lives the Outdoors trait will get a moodlet from being outside (+20)
- Having slept with a teddy bear (in inventory works) (+20)
- Playing with the imaginary friend, even for a moment (+20)
It's therefore easy to max out a toddler's mood, and combining that with a FO sim, a toddler can learn to walk or talk in about 2:15, and to potty in 1.5 tries. I don't do all of the above, just enough of what's convenient to get close to the max.
Toddlers can also read books on their own, and they build relationships with each other or with children when playing with the dollhouse, so it's easy for them to start out friends with their older siblings too.
