Sims 4 Foster Family Challenge
Some elements of this challenge were inspired by a creator on Youtube, quite a few years ago now! Unfortunately I can’t remember their name and haven’t been able to re-find the video but if anyone knows who it is then please do let me know so I can give credit.
The premise of this challenge is that your sims are foster carers who raise children from newborn-child stage. Once they are children, they get adopted - but one of their new parents must share a trait with them!
Starting Out
You can start with either one or two sims, but I would recommend starting with two. They don’t necessarily have to be a couple, but they both have to be young adults. Move them into any lot - but bear in mind they will eventually have 6 kids! Money cheats are not allowed, they can only get what they can afford with their starting funds, but there are no restrictions on moving house later on. They can have any traits and aspirations you want. They can have jobs, but there must always be someone home to care for the children - nannies and daycare are not allowed. If you are playing with a single sim, they can have a work from home job but can’t go out to work.
The Foster Children
As soon as you have a bathtub, a crib, a high chair, and an infant playmat in your house, your sims can start “fostering”. To do this, you must adopt a newborn through the phone or computer. You can choose whether you start with a girl or a boy, but you must alternate with each child. The children can only age up on their natural birthday. You can choose when you “foster” each subsequent child, but I do it like this - child 2 on the day child 1 becomes an infant, child 3 on the day child 1 becomes a toddler, child 4 on the day child 2 becomes a toddler, and so on. This ensures that you only ever have 2 infants at a time, otherwise I find that it gets too stressful. You should aim for all infants and toddlers to age up with at least the “happy infant/toddler” trait. If you want to add an extra challenge, you can fail the challenge if anyone ages up with the “unhappy infant/toddler” trait. All the children’s traits must be randomised when they age up.
Adoption
Once the foster children reach the child stage, they can be adopted out. To achieve this, the foster parent(s) must find a townie with the same trait as the child. One parent and the child must then become friends with the townie/new parent. Using manage worlds, the children should then move in with their new family, and a new baby can be “fostered” to replace them. Parents can leave the home lot to meet townies, but all the children must either come with them OR stay home with the other parent - they cannot go to daycare or be cared for by a nanny. If the child ages up to a teen before the parent(s) can find a match for them, they can still be adopted - they will now have 2 traits, but they still only need to match 1 (otherwise it would be near-impossible). They must be adopted before becoming a young adult or you will fail the challenge. You should aim to have 6 children in the house at any one time, other than right at the start. If you choose, your sims can receive a payment every Monday of 50 simoleons per child - to do this, use the cheat code “money xxxx”, and input the amount of the payment PLUS the amount your household already has. For example if you have 3 children and your balance is 5000, you would input “money 5150”.
Other Rules
Each townie household can only adopt 1 child. You cannot split couples up, but you can move out adult children who then become a separate household and are eligible to adopt. Children who are adopted as part of the challenge cannot adopt when they become adults. If you want an extra challenge, you can adopt the children out in the same order they come in (e.g. if you find a match for child 2 before child 1, they must wait to be adopted), but this is not necessary. If you have Get To Work or Get Famous, your sims can have the careers from these packs, but you cannot follow them to work as you should be focusing on raising the foster children. Same goes for teens if you have Highschool Years. You can use reward points to buy any perks you want.
The challenge can end in 3 ways: 1. A child ages up to young adult without being adopted, 2. A child is taken away by social services, 3. Your original parents both die. Alternatively, you can choose one of the children to take over when the parents die as this is not technically failing.
This is my first time making a challenge and I also haven’t finished playing it all the way through yet, so please let me know if anything is unclear or doesn’t make sense. Happy Simming!
