Family Oriented Trait trouble

@TygerNight, I don't play on  a console, but we get the same thing on PC so that's why I'm answering.🙂  I do play a lot of Family Oriented Sims.  I agree that this moodlet is sometimes nonsensical … in real life an adult Sim shouldn't miss their spouse or children that much knowing they are at school or work and will be home in a few hours. 🤨😃  I also get that moodlet sometimes If my Sim goes outside to garden and is still on the lot but his or her family is inside, or vice versa. 😃  I think that this moodlet is just an exaggeration to make Family Oriented Sims more unique.  It also balances them out somewhat for gameplay.... They are usually happy and have good moodlets when all Sims in the family are present. This is nice, but offers no gameplay chanllenges.  So, I think the sad moodlet was created to balance them out. Otherwise, I would have every Sim be FO just for the good moodlets!  This way there is a bit of a challenge!:eahigh_file:

If the sad moodlet gets too annoying, then just override it with postitive moodlets.  It will still be present, but it won't effect your too much that way. (You might have to do multiple of these, but some are easy to do).  So, I might have them take a bubble bath to get a playful moodlet to counteract the sad one; or I might eat some produce to get a little happy moodlet.  If you have Seasons, eating honey can give your Sims great moodlets (and can save them from temperature extremes as well! :eahigh_file: ) . And of course, depending on their other personality traits, you can have them do activities that satisfy those other aspects of their personality to counter act the negative one from missing family. There are more ways to add to your Sim's good mood than I can even list here!  Also, if this sad moodlet is overriding any other moodlets, or you have more than one sad moodlet at any time as to be the predominant mood , you can always call the Sadness Hotline on your phone to alleviate your Sims' sad mood! ❤️ So, hopefully that will be of some help to you! 😇

It's actually not a huge deal in this case because she's Caleb's new wife and I've been building him for weeks. So I have all the emotion trees from the jungle and have her harvest them every day, plus he's got all his needed traits bought (I skipped the cheaper ones like Seldom Hungry and got Always Full, etc) and I got a plethora of the emotion and need potions to give her.

It's just that... It shouldn't happen. It makes no sense. Plus I'm one of those players who scan the moodlet bar constantly and I'm always disheartened to see that dark blue strip. 😟

I already see it way too much with Sims unhappy with dirty environments and there is literally nothing dirty in evidence. I've got a dishwasher, 2 robot vacuums and even hired a maid but still they'll have that dark blue dirty bar. No children right now and no shelves high on the walls where they love to put dirty dishes and then can't reach them when I tell them to clean up. 😳

@TygerNight, yes!  Those dishes that end up on high shelves make no sense!😞 If you are tall enough to put them up there, then you are tall enough to pick them up! 😠🤒 And thank you for mentioning the emotion berries from the trees in Jungle Adventure! :eahigh_file: I forgot to mention them! 🤭

I think she needs her own kids to resolve this. Right now, it sounds like all of the kids are her husband's but none of them are hers.

@Sketch793, that is a possibility!🙂  It is worth a try, but the house is full right now , so until some of the kids grow up and move out, we can't know for certain.  🤔

Also, there is still the possibility that this wouldn't make any difference.  I've had Family Oriented Sims get sad when their own children went to school, or even if they just went outside.  My family oriented gardeners even get sad when they garden if the children and/or spouse isn't outdoors with them! 🤨😃

@TygerNight, I could be wrong, but I don't think that becoming the main caregiver would make the children hers .🤔  Children can become care dependent with their teen siblings.  That doesn't make them their parents.  It is just the person who they are supposed to be more likely to go to for most of their care needs.❤️  I've also had a scientist (Get to Work) who had a family, but at his work he had to make some clones of himself.  I moved the clones in with the family and both of the clones of the father can be chosen to be the Caregiver of the scientists children! 🤨  Genetically, these clones are like uncles to the children.  They wouldn't become the children's parents … it is more like a legal or practical designation.  😉

However, it can't hurt to try! 😇

I don't think being the children's caretaker counts the same as being their parent. I'm not certain this is the problem but I think it's very likely to be.

Well she just gave birth to twins (that Caleb...) and I'm still seeing that ridiculous sad moodlet. She was painting not 5' from the twins and there it was. I had her bounce each baby and it's still there. 

This is just overkill, seriously. If they can't fix it they should just delete that particular moodlet from the game. Along with the unpleasant surroundings moodlet. That one is a permanent fixture on my Sims' bars and I'm sick of seeing it. Maid, butler, dishwasher, 3 robo vacuums and still I have to get chastised by a stupid buggy moodlet.

@TygerNight How did she get pregnant if you already had a full house? Oh, man, I am family oriented and I would have a sad moodlet most of the time if I was caring for 4 sets of toddler/baby twins! :eahigh_file:

In console can you get debug items to add to the lot and activate? If not hunt some down... You can add career reward items and other moodlet items to another lot, move dad out temporary and have him buy the lot and add the items to his personal inventory then sell the lot and move back in with his wife. Gems and other items that are possible to add to personal inventory would work for this. Then he can add them all around the lot and activate the moodlets to set off moodlets continually and override the sad one. If you were on PC/Mac you could cheat to add the parent relationship with all of the children, and that may help, but you are on console, so cheats are not an option, correct? 

You can also do this trick (adding moodlet items) in a room and upload that room to your library then download the room to your lot and get the items from the room.

Do you know you can drag dirty dishes to the trash yourself in live mode?

Also... as a heads up:
I've had issues occasionally with toddlers leaving the dishes in random places also (and high shelves), but also inside walls, and in mid-air. Yup, how fun is that? I found the inside-the-walls ones either by noticing the plate edge on the wall, the green fumes, or by having the walls down and seeing it hanging in mid-air. So, you could check for some of these possibilities. 🤔