Parenthood is the last EP I don't have. Should I?

Oh one more comment - Parenthood gives sims the ability to argue and some more "mean" interactions which I enjoy using occasionally. (I think it was Parenthood that added these - or was it the pre-Parenthood patch?)

I think you might be taking the trailer too literally and reading too much into it. Just because they're marketing just how involved you can be in the pack doesn't mean they'll point a freeze ray at you and force you to make your sims hold their kid's hand through everything. If you want to grind for a character trait and utilise the parent for it, you can. Or you leave the kid to their own devices. I've had kids independently gain any traits I wanted them to have just as well as I've had more hands-on parents influence their children, because I made them be that involved.

Again, if you don't want a sim to help their kid with a school project, just... don't tell them to help. As simple as that. Your kids aren't going to turn out horrible just because their parents are busy. And you don't have to teach them to say sorry or scold them for cussing.

I would only recommend let's plays if you can keep in mind that it's a series specifically exploring the pack, and they will most likely be very involved as a result in order to showcase just that. If anything, consider watching a let's play of a pack that came after Parenthood to see how the pack works when it's not the player's focus.

"jimbbq;c-17493821" wrote:
One of the few game packs I don’t enjoy. I think the sim team generally did a good job with game packs but parenthood is not it, at least not for me. Basically kids come with 5 trait bars which can go green or red. Do homework your responsibility bar goes up. Break curfew it goes down. It sounds good until you realise the traits they get don’t really do much to the gameplay. It is the flaw of sims 4 trait system and parenthood building on this system is therefore not enjoyable for me.

I really appreciate this. This is the kind of detail that I needed. I also appreciate everyone else who took the time, because I have heard how much some people love it, and wondered if I were jumping to too many conclusions. But if it doesn't come with any really alluring additional gameplay or objects or better radio stations or interactions, and it's just homework and curfew and whether to disclipine and making kids act a whole lot worse than they otherwise would, I am seriously leaning in your direction.

Big question: you obviously bought it and don't like it: so what do you do? Can you uninstall it? Or does it dog the rest of your game in all worlds, any time someone has a kid it has to be this way, now?

"Nushnushganay;c-17494369" wrote:

"jimbbq;c-17493821" wrote:
One of the few game packs I don’t enjoy. I think the sim team generally did a good job with game packs but parenthood is not it, at least not for me. Basically kids come with 5 trait bars which can go green or red. Do homework your responsibility bar goes up. Break curfew it goes down. It sounds good until you realise the traits they get don’t really do much to the gameplay. It is the flaw of sims 4 trait system and parenthood building on this system is therefore not enjoyable for me.

I really appreciate this. This is the kind of detail that I needed. I also appreciate everyone else who took the time, because I have heard how much some people love it, and wondered if I were jumping to too many conclusions. But if it doesn't come with any really alluring additional gameplay or objects or better radio stations or interactions, and it's just homework and curfew and whether to disclipine and making kids act a whole lot worse than they otherwise would, I am seriously leaning in your direction.

Big question: you obviously bought it and don't like it: so what do you do? Can you uninstall it? Or does it dog the rest of your game in all worlds, any time someone has a kid it has to be this way, now?

Honestly one of my favorite things is taking tech away from teens as a punishment. It has really nice build/buy items too especially for the kitchen. It is one of those packs you can use the features and parenting skill does come with it which can help managing toddlers easier, but a lot of the gameplay actions can be avoided and are labeled with the icon. So it is kind of like Tiny Living in a way the features are there, but you don't have to use them. It does help bring more personality to the Sims if you choose to use some of those features either by making kids responsible or not for example.

@Scobre So I've watched the videos posted here (and grateful for them!) and it has me both more interested, and more not. Interested because it's one way to get more humor and grossness into an otherwise way-too-bland game (burps, farts, even sharts!? I'd enjoy that) but certain things like kids having to go through a Furry phase? Way out there and super annoying.

So you've really got my attention with what you're saying, that the features are there, but you don't have to use them? So if I don't want to be an intensive super-parent, I can just play like I otherwise would and things will be fine?

Also, what's the deal with curfew? Does there HAVE to be one? Do parents get to choose the time or is it set by the game?

And if I do not make my kids/teens go to school, using a mod to make it optional, I sure hope this pack wouldn't shove school down our throats as a necessity. I mean kids who don't go to school can still study, "do homework" so is that enough?

"sinra;c-17494349" wrote:
I think you might be taking the trailer too literally and reading too much into it. Just because they're marketing just how involved you can be in the pack doesn't mean they'll point a freeze ray at you and force you to make your sims hold their kid's hand through everything. If you want to grind for a character trait and utilise the parent for it, you can. Or you leave the kid to their own devices. I've had kids independently gain any traits I wanted them to have just as well as I've had more hands-on parents influence their children, because I made them be that involved.

Again, if you don't want a sim to help their kid with a school project, just... don't tell them to help. As simple as that. Your kids aren't going to turn out horrible just because their parents are busy. And you don't have to teach them to say sorry or scold them for cussing.

I would only recommend let's plays if you can keep in mind that it's a series specifically exploring the pack, and they will most likely be very involved as a result in order to showcase just that. If anything, consider watching a let's play of a pack that came after Parenthood to see how the pack works when it's not the player's focus.

Thank you, this is hugely encouraging. I was basing my reaction off the trailer, and it did make it look like something I wanted no part of. But from what you and others here are saying...maybe it's not gonna break my game? And farts, burps, and sharts and cussing have a certain allure! :D Anything to get more personality and humor into this game!

"Nushnushganay;c-17494467" wrote:
@Scobre So I've watched the videos posted here (and grateful for them!) and it has me both more interested, and more not. Interested because it's one way to get more humor and grossness into an otherwise way-too-bland game (burps, farts, even sharts!? I'd enjoy that) but certain things like kids having to go through a Furry phase? Way out there and super annoying.

So you've really got my attention with what you're saying, that the features are there, but you don't have to use them? So if I don't want to be an intensive super-parent, I can just play like I otherwise would and things will be fine?

Also, what's the deal with curfew? Does there HAVE to be one? Do parents get to choose the time or is it set by the game?

And if I do not make my kids/teens go to school, using a mod to make it optional, I sure hope this pack wouldn't shove school down our throats as a necessity. I mean kids who don't go to school can still study, "do homework" so is that enough?

Yeah I ignore the furry phase. XD The emo phase is fun just because Sims want to dress in black. Yeah you don't have to use the features. There doesn't have to be a curfew, it is optional too. You have 3 times to pick from with the curfew set by the game. The school isn't that much different from the base game. They just have these special assignments they bring home from school which your kids can do but they don't have to. There are also two versions of the projects, so rushing it makes lower quality objects.

The burps, farting, and cussing are super fun.

The curfew system is optional. Basically there’s a bulletin board you can purchase and put in your house that allows you to set certain parameters like the curfew, and it’s only if you do this that there will be any impact on your children’s traits.

Doing poorly in school is one way to lower your children’s overall Responsibility, but the game would have to actually register them as “missing class” or having “not done” their homework upon going to school. If you were to mod out school altogether, then you can’t really lose Responsibility in that way.

I’ll be honest, although I like the premise of the pack, I don’t use all of the features all the time. I tend to let my kids do their own thing. By default since I always make them do school work and chores, my kids always come out “responsible”, which isn’t a bad thing. All it really does is make them choose the “Work Hard” away action by default as adults, and gives them more positive outcomes when they get Chance Cards during work, which almost always results in them gaining work performance rather than lose it.

Emotional Control and Compassionate are other nice values to have though, since they enable you to control your emotional state or the state of other sims around you very easily with only a couple interactions.

The only reason I ever use Good Manners is for the Polite introduction, which gives slightly more friendship than a normal introduction. But if you literally use anything else given from Charisma, then this pales in comparison.

I don’t really use Mediator much, just because most of my sims don’t get into arguments in the first place.

The negative values are great if you don’t want sims to have perfect lives. There are also cheats so you can apply these to pre-existing adult sims if you don’t wanna go through the hassle of raising new generations from scratch.

—that is a downside for this pack for me though, in that only player-influenced families will have these traits, as they are not randomly applied to NPCs at all.

"Nushnushganay;c-17494369" wrote:
Big question: you obviously bought it and don't like it: so what do you do? Can you uninstall it?

You can disable it: https://jamesturner.yt/disablepacks

Eh, the actual mechanics in the game are mostly easy to ignore or totally forget except for some of the phases that Children and Teens go through and the Teen mood swings. Also, the Responsibility trait is actually really easy to max out for a positive outcome just by having the kids do their homework and go to school, manners is second easiest with autonomous dish washing in play, and a full positive bar for the others or a full negative bar for any of the traits actually is a grind...but a grind you can safely ignore.

Mainly, you should get this pack if you play with families a lot or you really, really like the CAS or Build/Buy offerings. They have a pair of ripped jeans in this pack with a plaid flannel shirt around the waist that give me 90's throwback vibes so hard I can't help smiling whenever I see it. But, if you don't really need more clothes or home stuff and you don't play with families all that much, you can safely skip this pack.