Expansion packs, play without:
1) Into The Future -- dont' want to accidentally gain advanced tech skill.
2) Seasons -- don't want alien abduction, don't want kids to get sick, don't want weather so my sims can stay outdoor without getting burned, don't want holidays.
3) Nightlife -- don't want paparazzi they are annoying, don't want celebrities cause sometimes sims lose best friend status doing something stupid.
General Strategy:
1) Play in a town you know very well, know all the teens and children and where they live and where all the hangout spots are. I played in Sunset Valley.
2) Having triplets is not the way to go, have to time pregnancy and birth, doing 2/3/1 kids is optimal.
3) Moods - keep moods high so learning is faster. We learned from plenty past challenges that if the mood is super good, you learn skill faster. So toddlers will learn their skill faster if they have tons of good moodlets.
4) "Fertility Treatment" + listening to children music + watching kids TV will contribute to triplets. For the first pregnancy, I didn't buy fertility treatment, I just used music + TV -- I wanted twins instead of triplets for optimization purposes.
Baby Stage Strategy:
1) Both mom and dad have charisma skill and complete 2 skill challenges - the meet 25 people and also the 10 best friends.
2) Sometimes the babies will skip good friends to best, sometimes it won't.
3) Deliver babies at home, don't go hospital, waste time plus babies born at home have higher relationship with parents.
4) Pamper mom when she is pregnant, let dad do all the suffering. All the babies born must have 2 traits, loves the outdoor and genius.
5) Beautiful vista - good moodlet to have at the start.
6) Living outdoors - get love the outdoor moodlet.
7) Music - get music moodlet.
8] Laundry - if you change diaper on the babies, they get the freshly laundered moodlet.
9) Add up as many good moodlets the baby can get then snuggle them till they become best friend.
10) Both mom and dad have the "Attractive" and "Eye Candy" lifetime reward.
Child Stage Strategy:
1) Jot down every single teen and under in Sunset Valley plus their days to age to YA. You can look at the diagram above.
2) Child's best friend will be their romantic interest when they age up to teen, so just use one person. Pick the teen that will still be teen when your child has aged up to teen so they can be romantic interest. Well pick the oldest teen first, as you need to save the rest of the younger townie teens for your other kids.
3) Use "work hard" during school, you need 2 days of school to get grade "A".
4) Use "play tag" with the teen to become best friend, easiest way I find.
5) All the children 3rd trait is "bookworm" so they can do homework faster, slightly more time to play with friend.
Teen Stage Strategy:
1) All the teen 4th trait is "flirty" so they can flirt with their best friend and become romantic interest easier.
2) Same as child, 2 days of "work hard" during school will get an "A".
Strategy Days (refer to calender above):
Week 3 Tuesday -- I have 4 kids at home, one of the kid aged up to YA and can be kicked out. However I didn't kick him out immediately. I waited for mom to deliver babies, so only 2 babies (instead of 3) delivered, then kick out the YA. This way there is an empty spot in the house so mom can get pregnant again. 3 days later when mom deliver, there is already many empty spots in the household so she was able to deliver 3 babies. How many babies you can have is determined during the time of delivery, not during the conceive period (different than real life).
Week 3 Friday & Saturday -- I chose to have mom not get pregnant during those 2 days. By my planning and calculations, I can get 2 more pregnancies and deliveries in before games end.
Week 4 Wednesday -- I have 5 kids at home, 2 kids aged up to YA and can be kicked out. If I kicked out both of them, then I have 3 spots in the house and mom would deliver 3 babies, but I chose not to. I kicked one out, kept the other one around. Mom delivered 2 babies (2 spots in the household) then after that I kicked out the YA. So I have empty spot in household mom can get pregnant again. Final delivery on last day of challenge.
Nutella