Somewhat controlling is probably a more apt description of what I am trying to do. I do want them to still age and progress with money, skills and careers.
I play very slowly as well. Aging is supposed to have roughly a sim day for each month of their lives. So each sim lives nearly a 1000 days. And Traveler is not in use, but I did forget about the vacation worlds. The sims there would just grow old and die without having babies. I'll play around in my test game some more to figure out how I want it to work and I'll go an activate that account on Nraas for more specific questions.