Do You Play Through Each Life Stage or Age Up Whenever?

I play on long lifespan so I have enough time to explore my sims' life stages to get a feel for their personality and development. I'll typically age them up after they reach certain long-term goals, which they do throughout their stages: infants need 20 milestones, toddlers need maxed skills, kids need to get all scout badges, teen witches need to learn 3 spells in each category, and young adults usually age up when their kids become teenagers.