Has anyone played as a kid or teen onward?

Since we've been able to play a teen living on their own (I think it was with the City Living patch), I've played quite a few teens living wihout benefit of parents. Sometimes I'll have thm get a part-time job, othertimes theyll just get a cheap apartment and make extra money by collecting and fishing. It can be tricky finding time for everything they need: work on skills make some money to cover bills, and keep their grades up, but it's definitely a fun way to play. The hardest is they have to cope with the mood swings and teen phases (Parenthood) on their own, without any parents around.

"stilljustme2;c-16740273" wrote:
Since we've been able to play a teen living on their own (I think it was with the City Living patch), I've played quite a few teens living wihout benefit of parents. Sometimes I'll have thm get a part-time job, othertimes theyll just get a cheap apartment and make extra money by collecting and fishing. It can be tricky finding time for everything they need: work on skills make some money to cover bills, and keep their grades up, but it's definitely a fun way to play. The hardest is they have to cope with the mood swings and teen phases (Parenthood) on their own, without any parents around.

I actually didn't know we could do that!

@stilljustme2 I'm about to be in that boat thru no fault of my own...parents accidently got pregnant not long before elder....they'll pass on after the kids are teens at least but not before they reach young adult

@ashcrash19 check out the Just One Sim Challenge. In that challenge, you DO start out as a toddler and can only control that Sim through their entire life. In my try at this challenge, my toddler has grown into a Young Adult now and is living on her own. I never played the parents, they are set to full autonomy. It's a really fun challenge in my opinion. Your Sim in this challenge can have their parents to do stuff for them. For example as a toddler ask for a bath, ask for food, etc., and influence the parents to do stuff too when the main Sim gets older.

For instance, I had to have my teen Sim 'ask to see outfit' when her parents would get home from work so they'd change into the proper attire for Seasons. Otherwise, they would just stand outside and slowly either freeze to death or die of heatstroke. They weren't smart enough to go inside for some reason. But, you can never play as the parents/other household members except to have them pay the bills, get a job at the beginning of the challenge and put out a fire or Sims on fire until your Sim is old enough to do that themselves.

Here's a link to the full rules if you want to check it out - Just One Sim

I've also played the Runaway Teen and Runaway Siblings Challenges with success too. I love doing challenges! :)

Yes, I played an orphaned teen who opened her own daycare (and lived there in a tiny room.) It was pretty awesome and made for some interesting gameplay. Including me almost having a nervous breakdown when a fire started that she could not put out. :s

Initially, I used Get Together to make a kids club on the lot to simulate the daycare. Using mods, it's more real now because she can care for toddlers and also get paid for it. Good times.

I started as a single teen once. Pretended she was a run-away and she entirely skipped school (I ignored school completely). This was back before, seasons or gardening revamps or the missing school penalties, but I wanted to make her a farmer since she couldn't have a traditional job -and living off the land seemed fitting for a runaway to me. So, I tried it. It was really, really hard. She was dirt poor for the longest time, living in terrible poverty and was absolutely miserable. She made calls to the "sadness hotline" as a daily part of her schedule. :fearful:

But, eventually, she managed to scrounge up enough cash to buy a business lot. And owning the store was a lot less stressful for her than keeping up a farm. That's when I also found that I, personally, hate running businesses in-game, but I didn't have the heart to send her back to her former life; so I stopped playing the household and let her live out the rest of her years happily without my interference.

Since Seasons and the gardening revamp I have tried running a farm again (with a YA!) and it runs so much smoother now. You can actually make a profit, and skills you learn help make the workload easier. I really, really like that new farm. Like I'm in love with it. But my first poor farmer was a very, very unfortunate soul.

"Voldarian_Empire;c-16740295" wrote:
@stilljustme2 I'm about to be in that boat thru no fault of my own...parents accidently got pregnant not long before elder....they'll pass on after the kids are teens at least but not before they reach young adult

My most recent save I made a teen, Cali West and put her in a San Myshuno apartment. Eventually she met and married Liam O'Dourke (they hit it off because they were both Geeks), and I'm currently on the 3rd generation about to be 4th once my teen ages up and marries her boyfriend. I had two teens orphaned in the game when their parents froze to death while jogging (on the same night, no less) but I moved them to San Myshuno to live with their step-brother (after they sold the house they had a pretty nice sum); one of the teens, Michaela Munch (daughter of Gunther and Cassidy) grew up and married her childhood friend Selena O'Dourke, daughter of Liam and Cali. See how everything interconnects? Selena had twin boys, Nicky and Kris (she got a bit frisky with Father Winter); I gave her and Michaela a daughter via CAS, Kayley (using the genetics with both of them as parents) and they adopted a son, Gage.

I had a house full of teens, they lived in an 'abandoned warehouse'. I still play one of them as a young adult. I ended up creating his parents and sister, and I've done the same for some of the others too.

@stilljustme2 so how was the viability of orphaned teens? Seems like it wouldn't be a LOT different than having young adults minus maybe some money issues. The parents of these twin girls had 2 girls long ago, they have moved across town at this point but I'm sure I could convince one or both of them to move back in if I really need it

Edit: fathers retirement project has been a big garden, can teens tend to the garden? If so I could just do that...one if them was going to be a botanist anyway

If I play a family I always play all of the members more or less equally. However, as mentioned before, since teens can live on their own I have had played some sims from teen years onwards without parents.
I specially grew very fond of a homeless teen I created some months ago. He has a dog named Kaya and I played a rags to riches kind of save with him. It was a lot of fun. Now I have him as a YA in all my saves one way or another.