When You Try To Help …

> @GalacticGal said:
> Currently, I have three toddlers in my main game save. Two are identical twin girls and the other one is their younger brother. As such, there are three high chairs lined up side-by-side in the large kitchen. Both of the twins are 'very hungry'. At first I sent their father to pick up one and give food. She pulls out the remains of a plate of mac and cheese, proceeds to sit in a large chair to eat it, yet her hunger doesn't abate. I find the plate back in her inventory and click on eat mac and cheese. She does, but she's still hungry. In the meantime, Dad goes off to do a concert, followed by a photoshoot. (He is recently a Workaholic.)
>
> In the meantime, mom takes the other twin downstairs to feed her. She places the toddler in the first high chair. I catch up with her standing before the microwave, evidently making chicken nuggets. I watch as she sets the plate of food on the tray of the high chair to the left of her toddler. Face/palm. I try to intercede, but I overshot the tray and the food ended up in that expensive trash compactor-like can. Face/palm. In the meantime, the mom removes the toddler from the high chair. :| :# Is it daytime, or am I stuck in some odd nightmare?
>
> Please share your moments of 'helping' only to make matters worse. :open_mouth:

I don't know for sure how to get this right using the high chairs but when I have troubles like that I just have the toddlers sit on the floor and put a meal on the livingroom table. They can then grab the meal themselves and eat it.

I don't know if you have expansions that change the toddler feeding options but in my game you can always feed the toddler from your inventory or just click the high chair itself when the toddler is in there and say, feed toddler. Then the child gets porridge. But the porridge usually works when normal food gives buggs.

Hope you figure it out. Goodluck!

Don't use the high chairs ever when having more than one toddler. These things are glitched and causes more problems than be helpful. I always put the servings on the floor and the little ones can help themselves.

I try to avoid the high chairs as they are weirdly programmed. I never understood why a parent and toddler must first sit down elsewhere for the parent to ask the toddler if food would be ok. They might waste an hour finding a seat, and then the parent will carry the toddler to the high chair, but other actions might disturb and I might cancel. It seems like even if I cancel, there ae some hidden actions queued, so the parent will get back to the task eventually. I wish I could see those planned tasks all along!!! The game has a few "chain programmed" actions that makes it impossible for the simmer to know that what you directed them to do is actually going to happen later. Tell them to "feed toddler" and the queued action will say "talk to toddler", which was not what you told them to do, so you might easily cancel and tell them again to "feed toddler". Utterly confusing...

I rather leave a group serving on a counter, and the toddler can help him/herself. I only use high chairs for storytelling or if I decided to waste a simday on confusions, LOL.

Whenever I have toddlers, I leave a buffet table for them so they can go and eat whenever they become hungry. Just to avoid the poor parents having to take turns lifting the toddler up, setting them down, lifting them up... setting them down...

"Mysan;c-17761634" wrote:
Whenever I have toddlers, I leave a buffet table for them so they can go and eat whenever they become hungry. Just to avoid the poor parents having to take turns lifting the toddler up, setting them down, lifting them up... setting them down...

Oh, and what a merry dance that is, too. Oi! I have a tendency to have a Sim serve a meal and then call to meal. Generally, since I've noticed lately that the rate of spoilage has simmered down, I will often just leave said platter on the kitchen counter. That way the tots can help their little selves. :)

"Simmerville;c-17761633" wrote:
I try to avoid the high chairs as they are weirdly programmed. I never understood why a parent and toddler must first sit down elsewhere for the parent to ask the toddler if food would be ok. They might waste an hour finding a seat, and then the parent will carry the toddler to the high chair, but other actions might disturb and I might cancel. It seems like even if I cancel, there ae some hidden actions queued, so the parent will get back to the task eventually. I wish I could see those planned tasks all along!!! The game has a few "chain programmed" actions that makes it impossible for the simmer to know that what you directed them to do is actually going to happen later. Tell them to "feed toddler" and the queued action will say "talk to toddler", which was not what you told them to do, so you might easily cancel and tell them again to "feed toddler". Utterly confusing...

I rather leave a group serving on a counter, and the toddler can help him/herself. I only use high chairs for storytelling or if I decided to waste a simday on confusions, LOL.

I've noticed that the chat that occurs often includes a discussion on pizza. LOL

"Madachan88;c-17761609" wrote:
Don't use the high chairs ever when having more than one toddler. These things are glitched and causes more problems than be helpful. I always put the servings on the floor and the little ones can help themselves.

Ooh, I would never even think about placing food on the floor! LOL The toddlers are well able to grab a serving from the kitchen counter. They can often, and do, place the empty plate up very high, too. (Wish I had that kind of reach!)

"Madachan88;c-17761609" wrote:
Don't use the high chairs ever when having more than one toddler. These things are glitched and causes more problems than be helpful. I always put the servings on the floor and the little ones can help themselves.

I have a family with one toddler and I think I will start doing this.

I have experienced this too, my sims will literally just stand around and let their needs drain while trying to figure out how to get both twins in their high chairs AND give them food. its basically impossible lol

When I do use the high chairs I try to have them put the food on the chair first and then the toddler. But it is easier to just avoid them.

I often drag the food onto the counter or place it in my toddler's inventory. It's much quicker to get them to eat that way. I have difficulty with the high chair.

If the toddler is hungry and tired and I place them in the highchair, the toddler will call another Sim and that Sim will take them to bed and the toddler still hasn't eaten. I prioritise hunger over energy, but the game wants to do the opposite which is very annoying cause I won't lose a toddler for falling asleep, but I will lose them for not eating.

I've also had the issue where the toddler was hungry and I got him in the chair to eat, but his mother kept picking him up. She picked him up, put him on the floor, picked him up, put him in the chair, picked him up and held him. I got the notification that he is very hungry and to feed him or he will be taken away, but I couldn't cause the mother stood their holding him for ages and wouldn't put him down. Finally she put him on the ground, but then picked him up again and put him in the chair. I nearly lost a toddler because the Sim just wouldn't let him eat. That's when I started dragging the food into their inventory and having them eat without using the high chair.

In my opinion high chairs are unfortunately the most inefficient way to feed toddlers. After using them once with my first toddler, I've learned my lesson and never used them again. For toddlers I can control, I drag a platter of food from the fridge and place it on the ground right in front of them. Preferably in their room which always has one of those animal chairs for them to use. They'll grab a plate, toddle over to the chair and eat it. I always put a coffee table in their room too for them to place the empty plate. Otherwise they'll slowly toddle out to the nearest coffee table and put it there.

Now, if they don't have very high movements skills yet, that's not a bad thing, it helps to increase it. In that case, sometimes I purposely put the platter of food on the ground half way across the house so they have to walk a distance to get it. Not a good idea to do it that way though if their hunger is in the red. o.O

If I can't control any Sims except for that Gen's heir in, for instance, an I.S.B.I. challenge, as others have said, just have them pick up a serving from a platter of food and give it to toddlers.

I've read about using the buffet table before, but haven't tried it yet myself. I guess some Simmers also will get one of the bakery food cases from the Get to Work EP, fill it with food and place that for their toddlers to grab a plate whenever they're hungry. It keeps the food fresher longer too, rather than putting a platter of food on the floor and possibly forgetting about it until it goes bad. Having a Sim in the house with the Chef aspiration completed is great when having toddlers too. Just put a platter of food down and it never goes bad. Some also like to use the popcorn maker. Just have a Sim pop a batch and toddlers will get servings on their own when hungry.

If I still used the high chairs the one and only way I believe they'd ever work correctly is if the household contained a single parent and toddler only with autonomy turned off. Get anymore Sims in the house and it'll be a never ending in/out non-sensical frustrating game with the high chair.

Happy Simming! <3

EDIT: The only instance I can think where I made matters worse for my Sims when trying to help, was the same as someone else. I'll intend to drag a platter of food to the fridge for them and end up accidentally dropping it in the trash or dishwasher instead. Once they even ended up getting a trash plant outside because I had apparently missed the trash can altogether and didn't realize it. Opps! :D Other times I've thought it went in the fridge/trash/dishwasher and it's really stuck in the wall behind those things. After awhile it starts to stink and my Sims will complain and I can't figure out why without tearing the house apart to find the culprit.

Now that I think about it, that's happened with books too, which is very weird. I'll have accidentally dropped a book when trying to drag it in the bookcase for them and after awhile they start complaining about it. Who knew books could 'go bad.' I've read some stinkers in my life, but that's not the same. You can't smell the pungency of a bad plot. :D