I turn to autonomy that is full, and just watch the family. I really only intervene when they step too out of bounds with my idea for this story. Autonomy works fine for me, if I first play while the ...
I never play completely like this, but I try to have a day or at least a few hours during a sim week where I let my sims do whatever. Some of my sims have more freedom regarding this than others. Not too much happens, but I like seeing sweet interactions among family members. I also have a lot of mods in my game, which help a bit I think.