@TygerNight I agree that the meters and interactions could use some love for toddlers and parents - and others they interact with. I was very frustrated to realize on my most recent toddler (entirely done during the needs decay bug) that many of the interactions with the toddler were not bringing the 'attention' meter up. In my opinion, anyone from a child to other adult to parent who is interacting with the toddler or caring for them in any way should bring their attention meter up.
Though IRL entertaining and cooing and interacting with a baby/toddler can be 'not actually' fun/satisfying (sometimes it's solely for the benefit of the baby/toddler and the parent is burned-out or the caregiver doesn't really care, they're just being a warm body and keeping the kiddo entertained and cared for for money/obligation...) those types of subtleties in motive and emotion are far more subtle and nuanced than is appropriate for the game.
Imho I think it's best to make all fun/play interactions move up the fun and relationship for both parties, along with attention being brought up by every type of interaction the toddler gets - even if it's from a nanny, servo, butler, child, etc. That seems most accurate, logical, and fair.
And it's just plain wrong for anyone to refuse the hug of a toddler. The only exception I can see for this may be if it was a non-parent or non-household member or non-caregiver that had the 'mean', 'evil' or 'hates children' trait (but even for them I cringe at the thought of a hug refusal(!)).
A parent refusing a toddler hug is just plain unacceptable. If you see this happening consistently you may want to create a bug report: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/bd-p/The-Sims-4-Bugs
You're absolutely right about childcare not always being fun for the parent/caregiver. I've watched them enough to notice that when parents are really low, their interactions with babies are listless and their tone of voice is subdued, so I don't have an issue with that particular situation. But mostly they seem to be happily interacting with them.
Hugs between parents and children are special though. It just makes me feel terrible for a poor (pretend) toddler have a happy, loving hug offer rejected. :'(
Yes, I anthropomorphize my cats and mice, too. XD
The toddler attention meter sometimes makes me crazy. Spending 2 hours teaching them with the blocks gives them plenty of fun but no attention?? Huh?? Maybe sometimes it just doesn't register or something.
To be honest, I've become almost paranoid about having a toddler ask for a hug because it hits the relationship bar so hard. I try not to. But maybe I'll start doing it more often and keeping notes of how often it happens...
I appreciate your reply and I would make a more involved post except for 2 things...
1- My neck hurts for some reason and
2- My Sims just loaded up XD
~Tyger <3
It's even worse now with the whole "Sentiments" system in place. I just had a toddler try to hug her mother, and not only did the mother refuse, which caused a dip in their relationship, the mother got the "Hurt" sentiment toward the child, the tooltip text for which is: "<mother> feels wronged by <toddler>. and being around <toddler> will remind <mother> of that pain." All this because the mother refused the toddler's offer of a hug. It's asinine. (If anything, it should have been the toddler that got the "Hurt" sentiment toward the mother.)
My toddler asked the parent for a hug and the parent refused, which was bad enough, but then I looked and the parent had a festering grudge against the toddler. It's heartbreaking to see this happen in my game with parents that are family orientated and good. A festering grudge for being asked for a hug from a toddler???? That's cruel and I don't want to see this happen in my game as I keep everyone's traits correct to be parents. They have emotional control too, so I don't understand how this is happening. I've had it happen with two toddlers by the same parent now. I feel like kicking him out at the moment! Yet it's him that keeps getting whims to have babies!! I had a pretty bad childhood and like some players, like to play The Sims to live out a life that I would have liked, so this is upsetting. I took them to the park, they were all having a lovely time playing then BOOM! hug rejected and festering grudge! What on earth is going on? This would/should never happen in real life, so why is it happening in a game that I'm supposed to be in control of?
