Since I've gotten this game, I find myself unable to play with normal aging, at least until I have a sim that can cook ambrosia. I have to set aging and story mode off until I can make my sims immortal, then I roleplay normally, most of the time with one or two main sims.
Only then can I turn on aging, and even then, I keep the sims that I play with immortal. I like to max out my stats in whichever sim is my main..
I don't like it when my main sims die