How old are sims...really?

I think they intentionally kept it ambiguous so that each life stage can cover a wide range of ages. The kids in TS4 can range from around 6-12 because they exhibit behaviors from that range (e.g. some responsibility like doing laundry, and playing with toys meant for younger kids).

I've wanted gradual aging for a long time so that the progression is more clear, but I understand that this is very complicated to do. It would be interesting if we still had life stages, but sims at the beginning of a life stage are noticeably different from the ones near the end (e.g. young children look closer to 6, while older children look closer to 12). So that sims in the child life stage still have the same set of clothes to choose from, but they slowly grow taller as they age.

I have raised three children and am the grandmother of ten grandchildren.
Babies are newborns until 3 months old, and infants until 1 year. In this game, since the infant pops out of the bassinet ready to walk I'd say they've got it right.
Toddlers are basically anywhere from the moment they start walking until about 4 years old
Children 5-12 (in this game they seem to start at age 8)
Teens 13-19 (hence the 'teen' in the age)
Young Adults 18-30 (at least here in the U.S.A. where 18 was made an adult via Congress ;) )
Adults 30-64 (once a person or Sim hits the big 4-0, it's called Middle-age.)
Elders 65+(this could change if and when Congress extends the age you must be before you can collect Social Security)

"Finbar659;c-16547662" wrote:
In real life, I have always seen teens that seem to be in the same height as their parents (maybe that is a irish thing since my little village tend to have tall children which is no surprise)

It's not just your Irish village. I've seen kids shoot up in height between ages 13-14. I had a friend who was about 5'6" when we got out of 8th grade. When I saw him again just as high school began, the kids was 6'. Stunning. Just stunning. My own brother never got taller than 5'7" so I never witnessed that before.

"Cupid;c-16547682" wrote:
I view the toddlers as 2-3, the children as 7-10, teens as 16-18, YA's as 20-early 30s, Adults as (very) late 30s - 55, and Elders as 65+

This seems close to what various devs stated when they were making these sims and the ages they represented - except teens were considered 15-16 and kids were 9-10. But I can suppose people can pretend what ever they want them to be - regardless of what ages the devs molded them after. LOL. I know a few simmers that tell me they make kids sims about 7 even though most 7 year olds I know do not just sit around talking like minature adults, but do a lot of running and playing (like kids in Sims 3) where I live from ages 6-8 - and why I believe Sims 4 kids actually act more like 10-12 year olds - so I guess it depends on the player and how they see them more than anything.

Babies: under 12 month
Toddlers: 1-4 years
Children: 5-13 years
Teenagers: 14-18 years (some are already teens at 12, it depends on the society and living circumstances)
Young Adults: 19-25 years (some stay YAs up to the age of 35)
Adults: 25-70 years
Elders 70+

Within the age groups I differentiate via clothing and accessoires. Also I play with free will off, so at least in my active household acting out of character doesn't happen.

For me:

Babies: around 9-12 months
Todds: 1 to around 4-5 years
Children: 5 to 12-13-14
Teens: 13-14 the youngest to 18
YAs: 18 to 30-33 (sorry, anything older is adult)
Adults: 30-33 to 60-65-70
Elders: from around 60-70 to death.

For me the gap between the child and teen stage is a bit too much. Here I would like to see an extra age category like a pre-teen stage. For me the children are only to like 11-12 years old and the teen stage is 15-16 to 18. I play on the longest lifespan so I solve it by dressing the newly transitioned teens into outfits best suited to 13-15 year olds then around the middle of their age span their outfits will resemble more towards what teens and adults wear.

There are some really realistic guesses in this thread.

I agree with some of the numbers here. One thing with the children is dressing them with base game items when they are supposed to be younger and kids room stuff when they are getting closer to the teen years. My child did sit around talking like a mini adult when he was 5 and 6 years old so this works for me. Like many others my real issue is the adult to Elder jump.

I see them as:

Babies: newborn to a few months
Toddlers: 2-5 yrs
Children: 8-12 yrs
Teens: 16-19
Young adults: 20s and 30s
Adults: 40s and 50s
Elders: 60s and up

One thing I see a lot of people are doing, is having the end of the Adult stage way too late.
There is no way that adult sims are anywhere near 60. Adult sims are still able to pop out babies. This means the upper limit of the adult stage has to be below 50. Which means the leap from 45 to 75 is quite a nightmare!

In my game, this is how I see it.
Baby: 0-6 months
Toddler: 3-4 years
Child: 7-12 years
Teen: 14-19 years
Young Adult: 20-35 years
Adult: 40-65 years
Elder: 75+ years