How do you decide when enough is enough?

IIRC, 6 is the most I've done in any Sims game. And oftentimes that meant that either some of the siblings had to move out or that the grandparents are already gone.

On average, I do about 2-3.

My sims usually have between 2 and 3 children. I find those to be the magic numbers. Several, but still controllable. If any of the children grow up and move out, I'd sometimes either make another one or adopt so that the parents would have some new spark in the family.

For those of you with multi-generation families, how do you play "rotationally"? Do you keep aging off or set to long? I've tried this, but after about 2 generations I find that it takes so long to get back around the rotation that I've missed half of my sim's life. Not to mention I find it impossible to level up in careers this way.

"ctthomas;c-16941223" wrote:
For those of you with multi-generation families, how do you play "rotationally"? Do you keep aging off or set to long? I've tried this, but after about 2 generations I find that it takes so long to get back around the rotation that I've missed half of my sim's life. Not to mention I find it impossible to level up in careers this way.

Set aging for played sims to "only active household," and set households of moved-out family members I've lost interest in as unplayed, with aging on for unplayed sims.

I don't have what I consider a "magic" number, however almost all of my gameplay saves started out with a couple and ended with them having a ton of kids. (At least 4, usually 5 or more though) It takes a lot of self control for me to be happy with only a few kids. I don't think I've had more than 5 families with 3 or less kids. I just started a new save with a single woman and I will try to keep her from having more than three kids, though if I will follow through with that remains to be seen. :D Wish me luck!

@GeniusSimmerGirl that’s very interesting... I tend to stick with smaller families. I would say, unlike you, 5 is my absolute max, and I have only had close to 5 once and it was very chaotic. I used to think I liked big families with lots of kids more, but it turns out I just like pregnant sims XD Wishing you luck though... you might end up like me and change over from large to small families. For example, I currently play 3 families and they all have 1 child except one of them who I gave a second child because of the marriage had failed and the wife got remarried.

In my new game I'm planning to only have one child in each generation unless I get unexpected twins or triplets. I think it will just be easier to manage things this way.

"ctthomas;c-16941223" wrote:
For those of you with multi-generation families, how do you play "rotationally"? Do you keep aging off or set to long? I've tried this, but after about 2 generations I find that it takes so long to get back around the rotation that I've missed half of my sim's life. Not to mention I find it impossible to level up in careers this way.

I play 3 families, and I used Mcc to set lifespan to about double normal lifespan and I play rotationally like that. I find it’s just enough time for me to play with my sims without playing bored.

My first family had 2 girls a few months apart, with 1 left at home and the other one was "evicted" for being naughty and was homeless for a while... as she started making money, she accidently got herself pregnant when she forgot to take precautions and now has to raise twins by herself... Think i can just about handle 1 adult and 2 children before i'd pull my hair house with stress!!

When I start to get overwhelmed by the amount of children, which varies depending on the ages. I play with MCCC and my household is set to max 20 (or 25, whatever the max is), so I've had... a lot. I think the most I've ever had is 12 (where they were all teens and below) but usually my golden number is between 2 and 4. Sometimes I'll have siblings live together as adults, so I may have cousins living together at one point too.