Do Our Sims Continue Their Lives When We're Gone?

I just had a bit of a bizarre moment. After the second patch, my Sims aren't behaving as they should. Inasmuch as I sent a parent or the Butler or an older sibling to take care of the toddler. Poor kid has wet diapers, he's grungy and hungry.  Mom seemed disinterested, and the Butler acted as if she wasn't on kid-duty. 🙄  Somebody finally had him in the highchair, at least. He was given a drink, now empty, but still no food. Finally, after Erik got home from the Starlight Accolades Show, he took charge of his little brother.

Erik jumped in and gave him a bubble bath and saw to it he ate.  I ended up saving my game, as always, and got out for some reason. Oh, yeah, it was the older Sim draging the toddler between their legs even up a set of stairs. 😬

After I got back into my game, I find that the toddler isn't in the castle at all. I double-click his icon and do you know where he was?  I don't know the exact name of the center, but it's in Bellacorde a slight distance from the castle, although the castle is pretty much in-line with the circle.  I try to get his sister near him, so I teleported her. Then after I put pick-up in her queue, she continues to stand there, as if unable to move.  Paralyzed with fear?  

I got out of the game again, to check my mods.  Actually, the bit of test-playing I did after the Tuesday patch didn't cause this kind of nonsense in my game. I decided to make another copy of the Mods folder from my back up folder.  After I inserted it into my game folder, I went back into the game.  The teen sister was still seemingly frozen in her tracks, but the toddler had taken off. Makes me wonder if Sims keep doing stuff even after the game is shut down. Now, logically, I know that's not even close to true. But it does make me ponder.  🤪