No Mourning and bugged "Read to Child" Option?

[LivvieLove]

So... I'm not sure if this goes here or not, but I decided to get the Sims 4 on sale on the CyberMonday sale Origin had. It's been an ok time, but I'm running into a few issues, though nothing I haven't been able to work out. I've messed around on quite a few save files but there are two things that are getting in my way, the first I'm almost positive is a bug:

My sim will get the book out and read to her child, but it won't count for any goals/milestones. These are the children's books I'm reading. The first issue I got was when she was at the dining table, then I read that the dining table was glitchy. So I made it a point to put a specific chair in the nursery for her to read to her daughter... well she sat down and read to her for 5 hours, all different kinds of books (all classified as "Children's") but it never counted for her milestones. Is there a fix for this or a proper way to do it?

Also, in another file, my Sim's husband had gotten older and passed away. I was very sad, as he had spent time with his daughter the night before... but no one seemed to... I don't know, care? No moodlets, no mourning. Heck, no one even came out to say goodbye to him as he played chess. It was like he had never existed. Is this normal? My sims didn't even cry... no, they didn't even turn their heads at the reaper. I'm so used to it being a moodlet and a huge deal in previous games, but now they're all just acting as normal. I sent his wife to go "Mourn" at the grave and that got her a "sad" moodlet for an hour, but I feel like there should be more than that... That just seems so insignificant considering everyone had lost their dear friend/father/spouse.
Any thoughts?

[Playalot]

hi LivvieLove,

I'm not sure what is going on with your book reading. I know that it can be quite glitchy when you try to read to a child starting at a table.

The mourning thing though... it seems hit and miss who in the household will witness the death of a family/household member.
If sims are married, even if they do not witness the death of their spouse, they should get a 'widowed' mourning moodlet that is quite powerful.
I have tried to 'make' sims witness a death but they just don't 'see' it even though they are basically standing on the dead sims body!! It's crazy!
As fas as I can tell, a sim has to be doing nothing at the time of the death and this seems to trigger the 'witness death' interaction. Sometimes if they are walking passed where Grim is standing this will trigger it to.  If a sim does 'witness death' it is a pretty severe moodlet that can be tricky to overcome with other emotions so it does really impact game play.

It's a shame there isn't a way for the player to choose if a sim will witness a death. Least then you could click on Grim and get your sims to mourn their parent or whoever is dying/being reaped.

[imayu94]

My sim will get the book out and read to her child, but it won't count for any goals/milestones.

Usually what I do when reading to children is to have them sit in a love seat or sofa together, then choose the interaction afterwards. This avoids the glitchy tables since they are already comfortable and saves a lot of time. Having the parent and the child sit in different chairs seems to cause the problem for me, so I opt to do my previous mention.

About the mourning, I agree with the insignificance. I honestly think that mourning needs to be, say only affecting household members with 50% friendship or above with the person. So that it has 'some' significance to those that are friends with the person in question. Just a thought. 

I hope your issue gets resolved soon!

[LivvieLove]

Thank you both for the responses!

I had a reply typed out, but I think I accidently "x'ed" the tab before hitting send. Oops!  I was on my way to work and in a hurry.

I'll have to try the couch, I guess. I know it's worked for me before, but for some reason within one file it didn't work at all, and in another save entirely my mother sim got stuck at the table until I reset her. It just seems like a random chance, I guess? I think the couch is what worked for me before, it just seems so finicky.

As for mourning, I'm just so disappointed. My widow had been married to him for her whole life, and she didn't even get a moodlet from it... nothing. I know it's likely just a bug; but boy was I disappointed after my very first death in game. In fact, no one even got called over to "witness" death. In the Sims 3, I always hated how death would interrupt everyone in the nearby vicinity, but now I pretty much miss it.

I'm about to try a legacy file again, hopefully this one won't be nearly as bugged as that one (the one where my first sim-death occurred was my first attempt at a legacy). My fingers are crossed. Thank you so much for responding again!