How many Sims do you generally play with in a household at the start?

I started with one sim girl and focused on building her traits full, exploring careers and unlocks, completing most aspirations, etc. until I finally got kinda bored and decided to hunt for man (who was an NPC) who would then father her 2 kids.

Nowadays I just play random households and do their daily routine and build some skills for a couple days before switching to another household.