Sim family questions

[heller12x]

Hi! I have a couple, married in a rather large home I built for them. They have six children. Two children, triplet toddlers, and one baby. I want to play with my couple until they die, while playing with my other children in there own homes and lives. I know you can keep them all under the same roof but I don't like that and it's not realistic. I would like to know how I can do this without concentrating on one sim family while the other keeps aging and has accomplished nothing. Please help.

[KirbyAndKat]

When the children age to adult, move them all out into separate homes, leaving the couple by themselves. Frequently use "Change Active Household" to switch between the children's lives in "Edit Town".

[Pam]

Welcome to our forum, heller12x.

What Kirby describes is the only way to do what you want.  However, while you're playing one of the households, the others will continue to live and do their own thing.  When you go back to one of the other households, you could find that anything has happened.  They may change jobs, have kids, or even move.

[Saltypaws]

I like to find a spot in the neighborhood and plop 3 or 4 small starter homes on either side of the family home.  When the kids age to YA, I will move them next door to the parents.  So whichever house I am in, I can always keep an eye out on my other sims.  So if little Suzy is playing outside during school hours, I will change active households and send her to school and you can also see if your sims are going to work or playing hooky, lol.  Ya leave them for one minute though and they can get a job or get pregnant, ya never know.  For the most part, I find, that they usually do go to work or school, so it is pretty cool to have a whole neighborhood of families you can play.  I have one game that I have the parents home and 6 houses of related sims and probably 5 generations, pretty neat.

[MoMoll]

I agree Saltypaws. I also invite the households over for dinner.

[Saltypaws]

I agree Saltypaws. I also invite the households over for dinner.

Yes, you can have a yardful of sims when you invite them all over for a cookout and it can be loads of fun or chaotic, you just can't tell with these sims, lol.

[pallyndrome]

Welcome to our forum, heller12x.

What Kirby describes is the only way to do what you want.  However, while you're playing one of the households, the others will continue to live and do their own thing.  When you go back to one of the other households, you could find that anything has happened.  They may change jobs, have kids, or even move.

The only way around this is to turn story progression (and aging) off, but this brings its own problems. I have explained some of this on other threads in the past (not sure what they were called).

[heller12x]

Thank you all so much. I decided I'm pretty sure that I'll pick my favorite child and for the most part play as them and let my original original generation do their own thing. Because turning aging and story progression off screws up stuff. Idk how but it does. I may periodically check in on them so they don't do crazy things, but then I don't want my active household to go haywire. If you want my opinion they need to fix this in either new patches or future games. Because when I make a family I would like to switch between houses without worrying about the other. Maybe like a lock on major decisions, while they still age, progress, and do whatever skills they like.