Servants having a baby - how shall the lordship react?

The easiest way would be OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! but that's a bit extreme...although it would deter other servants in the kingdom from having babies...lol
The only idea I have, albeit not very good, would be to have the Duke and Duchess raise the child as their own. Only they and the 2 servants would know the truth. The Duchess could lie about being pregnant and lay low until the baby is born. Of course, they'd have to really like their servants to do something like that.

Solution 4, for the future drama that would bring. If the mother isn't showing yet, a common solution was to marry. People might still notice the shorter pregnancy and gossip, but that would spice the story up, so I count that as a plus. The butler would of course lose status and probably his job for marrying below his station (except you are not that strict and treat all servants as basically the same class).

If the duke and duchess have relatives, those might take advantage of their peers being too soft on the butler and cook, maybe weakening their status among the other nobles by always pointing this out.

"EnkiSchmidt;c-18301303" wrote:
Solution 4, for the future drama that would bring. If the mother isn't showing yet, a common solution was to marry. People might still notice the shorter pregnancy and gossip, but that would spice the story up, so I count that as a plus. The butler would of course lose status and probably his job for marrying below his station (except you are not that strict and treat all servants as basically the same class).

If the duke and duchess have relatives, those might take advantage of their peers being too soft on the butler and cook, maybe weakening their status among the other nobles by always pointing this out.

However, if the Duke and Duchess are powerful enough at the moment, they could have their peers "dealt with". "Accidental deaths" happen all the time within the royal realm.

I think it depends on how good a cook the cook is.

Option 3 or 4 would be my preference. Allow the cook to keep the child and raise it without having her loose her job.

this would be my personal choice. The more realistic approach would be to either force the woman to give up her child for adoption and never mention it again or to force her to leave with the child and hire someone new. Both options seem cruel. So I would go for the most humane approach, not the most historical correct one.

But this doesn't mean you have to start a trend amongst your household staff. You could go for birth control and set the sims to 'can't get pregnant' in the gender options.

Thanks all for your input, highly appreciated!

I've yet not decided, but I realize that the nobility system might be a bit stricter than I want it to be. But pls keep in mind this is not taking place in the Downton Abbey era, but in our own time. The Monarch recently did set his own position at stake by officially standing up for women rights and gender equality (Grand Mazaloom Gathering addressing Equality). This once so formal class might have moved a bit onward, birth outside marriage might still be seen as a sin, but they are definitely no longer chopping heads off, although I see that would been a possibility in the old days ;)

I will go a somewhat milder route, but I agree that it is a very serious situation that must be dealt with, anyway. Luckily the Cook's pregnancy is not yet showing, there might be time to marry, but the gossips during the upcoming social season will of course raise anyway. Also, I didn't think of the Butler actually being of higher rank, and mating with a "simple" Cook harming his status, so maybe *he* is the one who should suggest a solution in order to save his own face? If so, it might even be easier for the duke to react milder.

The Duchess pretending having the baby would be an interesting story twist, but it would cause even more gossips: Not only is Duchess of Rossie 67 years old, but she had a "miracle baby"* last year. Yet another birth at her age would probably attract massive interest from the press, but even from scientists and doctors...

(*duke&duchess already had 4 nearly grown up sons, and the game must have made the duchess phone a relative asking whether they should try for a baby, and I must have thought I answered "NO!", but I decided to call it a "miracle baby" instead of killing it off technically, which I have certainly done in other houses. How I wish the game would stop doing this...)

I assume you currently have the "butler" and "cook" set as full household members?

If the butler is a valued servant, I would have him retain his full status and remain a full member of the household. He and the cook could marry, but she could move out (no need for a divorce, just a household transfer) and raise the child in a separate household. However, she could be retained professionally by having the duke and duchess still hire her as a caterer regularly.

If this was modern Britain today I doubt the duke and duchess would do much about it, if it was say 1950s or so, they'd make them get married or fire the cook. In the Downton Abbey era, the cook would definitely loose her job, the butler perhaps be demoted or at least reprimanded, and he'd still be expected to marry her.

As you say you are playing in today's time, I think you have a great freedom in how you want to do it. The cook being pregnant is of course an inconvenience, since she'll be unable to perform her job to full satisfaction. They might need to hire a second cook and demote her to house maid, at least for the time being, until the child is old enough to take care of itself.

Hmmm.. or marry them off and let them raise the baby in the household as loyal household retainers. The baby can serve the family when they grow up. That wasn't uncommon back in ye olden days. Think of the old butler who's father and grandfather served as the noble family's butler. I have a "royal family now turned landed gentry" aka Princess Cordelia's great grandson that still has household retainers. Robert the butler and Matilda the cook are married and their grown son Bob is the groundskeeper. Just added a spicy nanny. I dunno if Bob or the prince himself might pursue her....

"Amapola76;c-18301738" wrote:
I assume you currently have the "butler" and "cook" set as full household members?

Yupp, they are both live-in servants. Sorry if it sounded like the hired Butler service was involved, LOL. Would probably not suit their style, though.