My five year old wants to play Sims

[Ynde]

So I helped her make a family (she wanted a mom, dad, and toddler) and move them into a house. She reads a little, but I never realized just how much text there is in this game until I thought about what it would be like for her to try to play! I've been trying to give her as little help as possible and just let her do things her own way.

As a result, every person in her little family has a name that was randomly generated (3 separate and totally dissimilar last names), and the woman is wearing a wedding dress as her everyday clothing. On the other hand, no one has starved or wet themselves yet. We'll see what happens when things start breaking or bills come due. 

[HelenP]

My 6 and 9 yr old boys have at least one game each.  The 9 yr old obviously has very little difficulty with the game mechanics but sometimes struggles with what to do next and what his goals are for the family.  The 6 yr old still needs some text read to him though he's getting much better.  His family never has any money because he buys them random stuff.  He insisted they had to have a swimming pool even though they needed a fridge.

You may find that playing the game increases her desire to read and helps her learn words, you can hope anyway.  Have fun.

[Lal-Soukyan]

When my son was 8 he started playing Sims 3 and he made a husband and a wife. I checked his game to see his progress and the couple had never left their house. I told him that his Sims won't be happy if he doesn't get them out and about. He said that wasn't true because anytime they get stir crazy moodlets he would have them WooHoo and then they were happy again....

I did not see that answer coming.

[Ynde]

When my son was 8 he started playing Sims 3 and he made a husband and a wife. I checked his game to see his progress and the couple had never left their house. I told him that his Sims won't be happy if he doesn't get them out and about. He said that wasn't true because anytime they get stir crazy moodlets he would have them WooHoo and then they were happy again....

I did not see that answer coming.

Hahah! One of the things I thought about when deciding whether to have her start her own game is that the game is rated T instead of E for a reason. Most of the probably-not-appropriate-for-a-five-year-old stuff is likely to be over her head as well, though, so I don't think it's going to be a problem. First potentially tricky spot I foresee is when her toddler ages up and she asks me how to get a new baby. "Mom, where do sim babies come from?"

[ratchie]

All of my kids started playing Sims around that age. Now they are older I hardly ever get to play because they all enjoy it so much.

Rachel

[Lal-Soukyan]

I think the best part of my kids playing Sims has been how much they learn from it. Mean interactions and bullying makes people not like you, being nice and friendly builds relationships, I know it is obvious but kids don't always see their own actions clearly. We have used Sims to explains lots of things to them in regards to school friends and how they should treat people.

[Lexcee]

How do you guys feel about the wohoo and your kids? My daughter is 10 but I don't like her playing romantic in the game yet, I still think the game is too mature for young ages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HelenP]

Chances are it won't interest them, but then I've got 2 boys.  If they are curious enough to ask I would probably go with it being a very special type of cuddling that only adults do, and that it should only be done by adults who love each other lots (full pink bars ) because that way people don't get hurt.

Personally I would keep it quite basic and more about relationships than the action itself. I would also try not to sound embarrased about it so that they would be more likely to talk to me about such things in the future.  I know of a few girls in the school the boys go to, who are already starting puberty at 10/11, so discussing it within the context of sims may be a less embarrasing way of answering some of the questions that start cropping up at this age.

[Summers]

My son started to play the sims 3 at 6yrs old. He nearly killed my sim's needs bar. He kept commanding my sim to play football all night long because he liked the ball play in real life. My sim's hunger bar and energy bar were nearly red. That was his first sims3 play history. Now he can manage many things in the sims 2, sims 3 and sims 4. He is 12 this year.  

The other day, he was playing his own single play in the sims 3. He bought lots of arcade game machines using motherlode chats in his house. He bought 6 plumbots, placed over 10 lights in the house.  He was crazy at grabbing toys at the toy machine because it causes money to play that in real life.   Later on, he left the plumbots with their own will, 2 of them were powered off, and 3 of them were broken..etc.. And suddenly, his main human sim died from being hunger. He meets Grim Reaper very easy. Now he prefers other games than sims.