Should sims go through puberty?

I wouldn't mind.

As it is right now, children age up to teens who are already vaguely in the middle/near the end of their puberty anyway. The game is basically already speedrunning it. More gradual aging would be neat.

Although I personally have mods that allow for certain aspects of puberty and beyond, I wouldn't necessarily want that added in the game. As it is now, I can control what aspects I want to deal with for storytelling purposes.

I can see this being applied to life issues DLC.

Yes. Back in Sims2, our Teen Sims would have break outs if they didn't tend to their hygiene. (I loved how they could use ointment to help.) In Sims4, if you have Parenthood, our Teens can go for a bit of a merry ride for various, sometimes absurd reasons. (Although I do regret the walk-style attributed to said phase. It's ridiculous.) We all have passed through it and some of us are now seeing our grandchildren go through it, too. Yesterday in my Test Save, the eldest Teen was busy weeping, crying his eyes out and is very sad. Why? I don't know, but he's having a full-on meltdown. While I see many of you groaning, it can and does add a little something to the game, over the everything is the same day-to-day play style some object to. What recipe can't be helped with a little bit of spice, eh?

ETA: @afternoonbaboon I have used SOL and am currently awaiting the updated version.

Nope from me haha. I'm a family player and want more for each life stage, but not puberty.

i think puberty would be somewhat of an good idea. Now i never let my teenage sims get their hyguine low, however- imagine for a second implementing periods- they would have an option to either power through the school day with new pants or go home and relax (maybe with some more homework as well). Now the sim is technically missing school because of an illness. However, they probably would have to use the restroom more. not a bad thought. plus sims can get hot for no reason, i mean that's an idea too. or even have a sim that is always cold. the induction of "hormones" might not be an bad idea.

On the flip side, I'm surprised why anyone would want mensuration in their games. Natural part of life or not, some of us play the Sims to escape reality. Rather than simulate it in detail. Maybe it's because I'm in the former group? I don't know.

My own dislike for the idea of in-game menstruation aside though, it would be very hard to implement in a way that could represent everyone. I mean, which life stage would get it? Children or teens? I got my first period at the age of 10, and some girls don't get it until they're about 15. Even adding a "Pre teen" stage (which I don't see the point of anyway) wouldn't help solve this, since well... some people don't get it until a bit later in life.

And as for acne being a part of the gameplay and not just an accessory? No thank you. I've been dealing with that enough since about the age of 9 or 10 too. I don't need more realistic acne in my game.

The only way I wouldn't be opposed to it, is if they added a toggle where you could disable the puberty system altogether.

I think it would be a huge mess, because they'd need to stereotype and generalize puberty. My puberty wasn't difficult as such. The things I was going through in my life at the time were horrendous, but it wasn't due to puberty but external factors. I didn't get acne. Didn't have a lot of mood swings, didn't go through "phases".

But aside from the fact that puberty isn't the same for everyone, and that generalizations about it are already kind of inappropriate, fair representation would need to be present, across the lines of gender minorities as well. I guess it could be represented that everyone goes through mood swings and acne (even though that's not true) but beyond that, what? those things are already in the Parenthood pack, so they don't need adding. Getting too much in the weeds is unnecessary, and are they going to present a cis/hetero-exclusive version of it, or are they going to have a lot of backlash for being more real and inclusive? Any time the game goes into too much detail about sensitive topics, it's going to either exclude some people, or tick off and offend others.

That could be a kit for those who want it, so could babies and then we needn't buy those kits if we didn't want them. I want an elders kit myself as so many Simmers don't seem to want those, not knowing what to do with them apparently.

Honestly (and I hope I'm not necroposting! This just seems like a really interesting topic), I wouldn't mind a little puberty sprinkled in. Like people have said, having acne pop up, the chance cards is a cool idea, sort of like how you get them in Parenthood when the kid has a question. It could be like, "during the day, Susie realized that she has gotten her first period! In a panic, she thinks over what to do." and the options can be "go to the school nurse", "ask a friend for help", "just use some toilet paper, and deal with it when you get home". Something like that.

And while I do enjoy SOL added stuff, I agree it can be annoying to deal with, especially with how often you have to change out hygine products, and how my sims never seem to do it automatically. If they did implement something like this, I would hope things would be a bit more automatic.

But I think having kid sims deal with first pimple close to their birthday/aging up (like, within 2 days or whatever for normal ageing) would be a nice little detail! Or a teen boy getting "first chest hair" moodlet (especially if they implemented body hair in the game like they did with TS3). Allowing sims to shave, A PARENT TEACHING THEIR CHILD TO SHAVE?! THAT WOULD BE ADORABLE!!! Have teens get "had a "weird" dream" embarrassed moodlet. "Learn about woohoo" or "learn about the llamas and the bunnies" or something like that (instead of birds and the bees). Just little things, especially closer to aging up would be really cool! Allowing kids to "go to the dentist for braces", and then they get braces. Because while I like having the option for it, I feel like braces should be done in a more realistic way! At least, to an extent. And while they have them, they could get an embarrassed or uncomfortable moodlet ('annoying rubber bands', 'sore cheeks', 'brace face'), and being able to be teased for having them. But they also get a 2 day confident moodlet after they get them taken off! Oh, and on the same strain, letting kids lose their teeth! "lost first tooth" would be a cute moodlet! Ugh, this would be soooo nice.