You are not alone!
I too think any household over 3 sims is too much chaos for me personally. That isn't fun for me, I don't need my heart to race like I'm playing some video game that I'm trying to rush to beat the clock.
Nope!
I play sims to relax, not to stress me out.
And, I have no problem cheating needs if I need to (and sometimes I actually set them to not decay if I'm trying to accomplish something for story telling screenshot purposes).
I also always play in a single floor home so I can keep an eye on everybody. (I don't like overly cluttered houses that have large items like tall bookcases that block my view.)
That's probably the reason I don't do challenges with some pre-defined rules on family size/generation, etc.
I'm not a micro-manager, never have been. I play with full autonomy and aging off 90% of the time unless I'm needing a certain screenshot for story telling then I'll turn autonomy off so I don't feel like I'm hearding a bunch of cats or toddlers to do something.
