Saving the game causes me to not be able to pause or switch between characters

I think I've already troubleshooted that the problem is my game file, but I have no idea how to fix it. I am having an issue where it seems after I load a file and save the game, I'm then unable to switch between Sims in a household, select items to use and unable to pause the game (the game says it's paused, the red bar doesn't show up around the screen and the animations still play). After that, when I try to exit the game or alt+F4 it crashes.