Toddlers are soooooo annoying

I love toddlers in this series. And I was so excited when they came, but I found myself more and more on a huge grind to get them skilled up before they aged. I never got to enjoy them cause I was always pushing for high skills.

Yes, I know I don't HAVE to skill up my toddlers, but, to me, I do. I like successful sims.

And I was getting a bit sad that I never seemed to really get to enjoy my toddlers. Maybe a couple hours on their last day. No playdates. No fun. Just grind out the skills.

Then I learned all the tricks to quickly skilling my toddlers. And now I can have my toddler maxed on all skills by day 3 and then enjoy them for the next 4(+) days. And I love my toddlers again. We have playdates and play in the ball pits and slide, we get to splash in the pool and play the airplane game, read books, play pretend with a parent on the equipment. Yep, I'm back to a happy toddler sim-mom, again. :)

I wish we had peek-a-boo and a few more family interactions, though.

I adore the toddlers...I still don't get how the game went on so long without them. I agree with a lot of posters that the key is a small household with toddlers works much better than a big one. I have a few saved families, but one of my favorite families has both parents, 2 children and 4 toddlers (a set of twins, an alien born after the dad was abducted and a baby I just aged up) and I have to pace myself before I play with them cause it's ALOT, but never boring.

"annaliese39;c-17037920" wrote:
I really enjoy playing toddlers. I suspect the size of your household (esp. the number of toddlers) and different toddler traits can make the experience more or less difficult though, as well as your individual play style of course. My main sim has a clingy toddler and she's just adorable. I do plan on ageing her up to a child eventually once her Daddy has helped her max all her skills, but I want to enjoy the toddler stage a bit longer first, with some toddler play dates and visiting the toddler park together etc.

Household size definitely makes an impact. Also household consistency -- child siblings can talk with the toddlers and build communication, and teens can really help a lot with toddler care so you're not just relying on the parents.

I believe that these are the best toddlers in the Sims series -- they start out as really needy but as they develop skills they need a lot less help. They're not stuck wailing in a crib but they can get themselves out of bed.

"ChelleJo;c-17038425" wrote:
Then I learned all the tricks to quickly skilling my toddlers. And now I can have my toddler maxed on all skills by day 3 and then enjoy them for the next 4(+)

Where do I find those tricks? Because admittedly i play on Long lifespan, so what you say is 7 days total is 27 for me. But I am on day 5 and most skills are 1 or 2, with only communication and potty at 3 or above. And I do nothing but grind skills.

I can’t imagine playing without them :D . Before they were released, I had a few families of six over-acheiving kids while their parents were also very suscessful with their jobs. For me it was waaaay to easy and I couldn’t really play for to long without getting hit from massive boredom.

Ever since TS2 I’ve had a nack for managing time, so it’s never really been to much trouble to me.

So when toddlers returned, it was finally a slight additional challenge in family managing (not much really but it’s pretty fair).

I always rotate between every sim in my household. I know that while mom’s brushing up on her handy skill, her toddler can work on his tablet. His big sister whose a child probably has homework and will be working on that. Between times I make meals for the whole family. So everyone eats at the same time. Most of my fussy toddlers shockingly don’t seem as hard as I thought they were. Feels like once you hug them or ‘brighten their day’, they’re okay. Well that’s what most of what I’ve got from most of my triplets.

"Dreamie209;c-17038479" wrote:
Ever since TS2 I’ve had a nack for managing time, so it’s never really been to much trouble to me.

I don't know if I am bad at managing time, but even without kids in the family my Sims barely have time to socialize except when I cue up stuff to make them happy. I tend to spend all the time either have them grinding to make money, grinding to learn a skill to get promoted or sleeping. I virtually never let them do what they want, when they finally have a day off I schedule a date or something just to get some social in, and then spend the rest of the day fulfilling the need to get the next promotion.

Maybe I am just easily stressed or something? I feel I constantly have to pause and cue up actions or I lose time that could mean a day shorter wait for the next promotion.

"Beardedgeek;c-17038477" wrote:

"ChelleJo;c-17038425" wrote:
Then I learned all the tricks to quickly skilling my toddlers. And now I can have my toddler maxed on all skills by day 3 and then enjoy them for the next 4(+)

Where do I find those tricks? Because admittedly i play on Long lifespan, so what you say is 7 days total is 27 for me. But I am on day 5 and most skills are 1 or 2, with only communication and potty at 3 or above. And I do nothing but grind skills.

They aren't listed any where, it's just things learned from here and there. I'll give you a run down.

Have a toddler queue up a ton of "watch" on an adult. This will quickly raise the thinking skill. When they get to level 4, and the "ask why" option shows up. Have them ask why. This gives a quick boost to Thinking.

For imagination, have an adult read to them. They can look books over on their own, but I found that it's quicker to have an adult read them the story. Also, if you just need them out of the way while parents are busy, you can have them play with the doll house, the outdoor equipment (playing pretend) but they won't boost as quickly as an adult reading to the toddler.

Communication. Get one of the large stuffed animals (unicorn, dog, cat, etc). And have them babble and/or talk to the stuffed animal. You can max communication in a matter of no time.

Potty, I haven't really found a fast trick for. Usually it is the last one I get maxed. But I don't worry about it much cause as long as I have them go potty everytime, they'll max it eventually.

Movement. Have them do the slide. That is a major boost to a toddlers movement skill. It's much like the stuffed animals with communication. You can max it in a matter of no time.


I grind out these skills, and the most it's taken me doing it this way is 3 sim days. Depending on how much time we can work on skills day one, I can get it done sooner.

"Beardedgeek;c-17038387" wrote:
Again, how?
Both parents working. Lucy can work from home, but she usually don't have time to do her task so she earns 0 simolions then. She is dead tired and passing out when Lena comes home (also dead tired).

Twins constantly needy, the only respite i have found is to buy the worst beds so they sleep longer.

And i guess skills is a choice, but if I am not going for the traits I might just age up them immediately after they come from the hospital, right? Just age them up twice.

You only need parents to potty train them. They can take care of other needs themselves.

"nerdfashion;c-17038077" wrote:
I love playing with toddlers! The two traits I use the most are independent and inquisitive, but the first one is the winner. Then I don't have to bother toilet-training them, because they can go by themselves at level one. And they build skills faster when alone, and their attention need doesn't go down as quickly.

@nerdfashion I agree I love those two traits. So far I only have one toddler with the independent trait. I have about 20 toddlers in my family save. My toddler, Kamiko who has the independent trait is so cute. Whenever her parents put her in the highchair, she would demand to get out. I like how they fold their arms and kinda babble, showing who's boss.
Kamiko eating Cream of Wheat at daycare:

"Sharonia;c-17038290" wrote:
I love the toddlers, they're so cute. I was so disappointed when they weren't in the game when it released that it made me not play.

The only thing I dislike about toddlers and children is the constant mess they make with paint splatter. It's just so unrealistic for a child to do this all the time and the fact that disciplining them for it has no effect beyond filling the responsibility meter. I would like that they can learn not to do something after being disciplined. Pets can learn not to do naughty things after being disciplined so why can't children?

@Sharonia maybe it's my imagination, but my kids/toddlers seem to make messes more often. I don't know why. Even after I discipline them, punish them, whatever, they go back to doing it. It's not the same kids and toddlers either, but several in different families. I wondered if parents with higher parenting skills may have better results, but that doesn't seem to be the case either.