More skills should be unlockable for kids

"GrumpyGlowfish;c-16800682" wrote:
I wouldn't actually entrust any child that isn't Sheldon Cooper with rocket science, but other than that, I agree with the opening post.

I guess the developers really meant for us to play with aging on, because that way children always have more than enough to do, especially with expansion packs. They have school, homework and projects, four exclusive aspirations, other exclusive features and objects (playgrounds, voidcritters, monster under the bed, etc.), character values and childhood phases (Parenthood), they can be scouts (Seasons) and join the drama club (Get Famous) - so far I've never gotten to explore all of that with one child before they aged up. I was surprised to find out that they could even start building adult skills at all after maxing out the corresponding child skills.

That being said, there are still some things that children inexplicably can't do, like gardening. They can't even water plants! My parents had a garden when I was a child, and I always helped out. I also started writing my own stories the moment I learned how to write, and before that, I used to draw them. Maybe children shouldn't be able to publish books themselves, but they could at least take part in a story contest or something. As far as realism goes, real children are capable of far more than they can do in the game.

Absolutely! I agree completely! I think I'm a very "aspiration oriented" player--I play with aging on, and I pretty much always complete at least one aspiration for every child, maxing at least one skill, usually more. A few times I've completed all four with one kid. And it's really frustrating to max out the child skills, especially motor, and then not have much pay off until they age up. Unlocking a few more skills for them to pursue as reward for maxing a skill seems like not too unreasonable a request, and not too much work to achieve. For several of them, they wouldn't even need new animations--just let the fitness skill be acquired when they swim, for instance. As you said: real children are capable of far more than they can do in the game.