Anyone else feel relieved once they get to the “teen” life stage?

"jimbbq;c-17525925" wrote:
Toddler I like. Kid stage yea a huge drain. Boring as hell. Teen stage is not much better. I feel more relieved when they get to young adult stage.

The teen life stage is fun with slice of life, and basemental D mod. I believe that it would be boring with vanilla gameplay.

"MaggieMarley;c-17525932" wrote:
I feel relieved once they get to the child stage! I like children but toddlers are so needy and babies are a bit boring.

Same. Kids don't have a lot to do, sadly, but they're less needy than toddlers and babies, and therefore more independent.

"A_Mom;c-17526512" wrote:
I love playing with toddlers. One of my saves right now I’ve got a mom with 7 toddlers. My rules are that I can’t play the toddlers at all, only the mom and no cheats (except aging is off). The mom has to keep all the toddlers needs in the green as well as max their skills. It’s like one of those time management games only more fun.

I don’t really like the child and teen ages because there seems to be no time to do anything except school and homework. It gets to be a grind.

Did I read that you said 7 toddlers correctly?

7!? I can barely manage one toddler geesh lol
Kudos.
Question. What happens when your toddlers grow up? Do choose one to play as an adult and start a new life and family or do you play multiple saves?

"thecatsred;c-17526534" wrote:
I had a game where I challenged myself to ONLY play the child - the only times I controlled their parents was to pay the bills.

I went through toddler, child, and teen life stages like this, where the parents were basically roomies. It was a BLAST! Toddler stage was so difficult, but it was a fun challenge to get all of the child's skills up, while also keeping them happy the whole time (often got hangry). Once I got into the child stage it wasn't as difficult, since i have a kids can cook mod on, but my child also joined scouts, after school things, etc. They seem really rounded out because of the time I gave to them to focus on their interests and their friends! Once a teen they joined a group for karaoke and stayed out late into the night, going to school tired but with finished homework, etc.

I think generally I don't play with kids unless it's a challenge, or a legacy, but I find focusing on only the kid to be what makes it fun!

I can’t just play one sim in the household, when I do all of the others sims just get fat and eat nothing but chips and cake. But this is my first time focusing on a legacy gameplay, it’s nerve wrecking because I have to make sure that the sibling sims go on to have lives too once my chosen heir goes to university. But I have been playing my heir from
Birth til now and I really play as close to real life as possible, no cheats, they eat 3 meals a day, I make the siblings pick on each other and fight occasionally, the parents cheat on each other and confess and I have the reactions mod so the children are affected by the parents arguments so it has helped
Make child play more enjoyable

I wouldn't say I enjoy those stages much. With toddlers and children, its all "chop chop get those skills maxed and those aspirations done" so you can get your bday cake and become a teen. Its a rush for me, really, and quite repetitive.

To be honest, I quite rush through the teen life stage too, in some cases. I some times cheat skills/aspirations to get them done quicker (and the character value out of the trait-zone, because I find the constant character trait whims incredibly annoying)

"Kathykins;c-17526565" wrote:
I wouldn't say I enjoy those stages much. With toddlers and children, its all "chop chop get those skills maxed and those aspirations done" so you can get your bday cake and become a teen. Its a rush for me, really, and quite repetitive.

To be honest, I quite rush through the teen life stage too, in some cases. I some times cheat skills/aspirations to get them done quicker (and the character value out of the trait-zone, because I find the constant character trait whims incredibly annoying)

I agree it feels like a drag but I’m just going through the motions to get them to teen stage, the teen life stage is fun with a combination of realistic reactions, the parenthood pack, basemental D, and slice of life mods, my teens tend to be rebels they sneak off on curfew to do drugs, get caught and chewed out by their parents and grounded, I learned that with the parent hood pack toy really have to dig into it with social intersections to really get the feel of the pack.

Yes. I 100% support having all these lifestages in the game and improving them to be more fulfilling for each player. But I'm always relieved once they're kids because my toddlers keep glitching and not eating at daycare and starving so it's super stressful. Kids and toddlers don't have much they can do anyway that's super interesting.

Plus, I like to see how their genes turn out, and you don't get a good idea until the teen stage.

"Sindocat;c-17528542" wrote:
I definitely look forward to Teen, but "relieved" is a bit strong.

When my Sims have kids, a big part of the appeal is seeing how genetics express themselves, and Teen is my first good look at the adult features. I am not wild about mood swings, but they can be coped with and I do enjoy having my Teens take the initiative to work through that appropriately - work on that Emotional Control!

That said, I like my Children as well, and in my opinion TS4 Toddlers are the best they ever have been. Not all of the developmental tricks for good behavior are obvious but I notice that increasing Thinking (Mental? Which is the Toddler skill again? That one, anyway) gets them to fill their Hunger motive when eating, rather than stopping as soon as it reaches green, and helps with sleeping through the night. With children, messes become less prevalent as they become more creatively skilled, and mine seem to mostly confine their messes to their art area or outdoors.

The stage I am least invested in is infant, which I prolong only to assure that an older toddler is already potty trained before I start on the next. I also do not look forward particularly to Adult and Elder life stages. I think Elders, particularly, could use some development, and I would far, far rather see a "golden years" type game pack giving them more exploration than i would be in "freed" babies.

One thing I do notice is that my siblings stay close across life-stages. Teens need their own room, as I play them, but when Brodie got "monsters under the bed" alone in the nursery, he totally napped off the rest of the night with his big brother, who didn't mind. I love when they autonomously queue up things like this. :)

https://i.imgur.com/dU0IbCP.png

The elder life stage seems the most underdeveloped
Also my elder sims always die super fast ,
No matter the life stage they always die within a week of turning into en elderly, I wish they would stay alive without cheat and mods long enough to see their great grand kids atleast

I always age up babies the day after they’re born because the crying annoys me.
Toddlers, I don’t mind. The fact that they can eat adult food, instead of having to have it blended as in Sims 3, is so convenient, and they can grab it for themselves! I also like the fact that they can build skills on their own rather than having to have an adult teach them. I never bother trying to get them to max all the toddler skills, it’s impossible on the normal lifespan anyway. I get them to focus on one in particular.
I don’t mind kids either. I also never bother to get them to max all the skills or complete all the aspirations. Social Butterfly is a difficult one so I never bother with it, I usually have my kids do Artistic Prodigy or Rambunctious Scamp. Whiz Kid is OK but it’s not particularly easy getting an adult to read with them for two hours.

I did once play with the Long lifespan and got the child to master all the toddler skills and achieve all the child aspirations which was fun. I have a current save where I’m doing that too but the kids are only toddlers currently, and they’ve already mastered Imagination and Movement.

I have pretty much the opposite experience.

Sims 4 toddlers are the best Sims toddlers, imo. I love the way that they essentially grow up incrementally via their skills, and I've personally been able to get every toddler to level 5 in all skills that I've wanted to do so, even on normal lifespan with MCCC set to make skills harder. It does require making the household pretty much revolve around the toddler though, so I have to decide early on if we're going to go chill and get the level 3 trait or go for the gold. For me, all of that is fun!

Children have several child-only accomplishments and activities as well, at least if you have Parenthood and Kid's Room stuff. If they finish all of the aspirations I want them to do and get their A in school, there's still character values and scouting/drama club to max, as well as purely fun things like void critter training and puppet shows.

Teens, on the other hand, I find to be pretty meh. There's nothing much that makes them feel unique compared to young adults, but they can't really get started on careers or building a family, etc. Once they've tied up any loose ends from childhood and gotten their A, they just feel like a pause button between child and YA. Even skilling on them feels less useful with University now, since classes will build the skills for their career anyway and it's not like university is expensive enough to worry about getting lots of skill scholarships.

I know a lot of people want improvements for babies and elders, but I want them for teens the most.