Getting the Most out of Parenthood

[MarianT]

By "most," I mean most enjoyment.

It's designed for legacy-type players who want more drama in their game. That said, you can still have fun with it even if you're not doing a legacy.

Want to see more fights in the Spice District? You can use this cheat on some of the Sims who show up regularly in the area:

testingcheats on
traits.equip_trait Argumentative

You can cheat as many as 5 character traits on the YAs, Adults, and Elders that your Sims interact with.

Do you want your Sim to have more of a personality? When making a Sim in CAS, you can skip the neat/slob, good/evil traits, and use the above cheat to give the corresponding character trait. Or maybe you want a Sim who enjoys cleaning and has a gassy digestive system -- neat trait + Bad Manners should accomplish that.

As for people doing dynasties -- if you're going for the Hall of Fame, I'd recommend playing with a test family for a while until you figure out how to deal with phases and mood swings. It's probably going to be harder to get your child heir to max all 4 childhood aspirations before aging up. But once you figure out how to instill responsibility, those job promotions should be a bit faster.

Finally, this pack is a real boon to those of us who like to play ISBI (I'm Surrounded by Idiots) challenges, in which you control only one Sim in a household. As you develop the parenting skill, your Sim will at last be able to tell teens to do their homework and put children to bed at a decent hour. Parents can even give a small boost to hygiene and other needs for their children. If you tried the Asylum Challenge before and found it too dull, you can use the cheats to make inmates Argumentative, Bad Mannered, and Irresponsible, with Uncontrolled Emotions. If you want a real challenge but don't want to commit to a full legacy, try an orphanage challenge with 7 (or fewer) toddlers. Last but not least, there's our own Ten-Gen Townie Dynasty.

There are other, smaller, things you can do as well, like make sack lunches out of dishes at a restaurant or left on picnic tables.

[Playalot]

Sending offspring to school hungry is definitely the best way to parent these days! The sims child will always eat the sack lunch when hungry and will get a 5hr +2 happy buff and if all the other needs are met before leaving the house will also get the Happy+1 well cared for sim buff. Very easy way to get a +3 boost.

This also applies to older sims who go to work or even stay at home. The same game mechanics applies there for them too.

 

[Ninane]

Sending offspring to school hungry is definitely the best way to parent these days! The sims child will always eat the sack lunch when hungry and will get a 5hr +2 happy buff and if all the other needs are met before leaving the house will also get the Happy+1 well cared for sim buff. Very easy way to get a +3 boost.

This also applies to older sims who go to work or even stay at home. The same game mechanics applies there for them too.

Discovered this as well.  Love it.  My household has 6 sims with two being children.  So every night, I end up with 2 left over meals from dinner.  Those are turned into sack lunches for the kids in the morning which is a pretty fast interaction.  And finally!  A good reason to brush those teeth! (Builds responsibility)  So now my kids' morning routine is shower, toilet, brush teeth, write in journal (builds emotional control) and get their sack lunch before heading off to school. 

So far I'm dealing with the "loud" phase for the son and the daughter just went into the "bear costume" phase.

[MarianT]

Here is more about cheating character traits onto adult Sims:

A few of us, myself included, felt that the point system from TS1 and TS2 was superior to the trait system introduced in TS3. What I'm beginning to realize is that the character traits from Parenthood now make it possible to bring back the point system to some extent. Here's how:

When creating a Sim in CAS, you could avoid these following traits:

neat/slob
perfectionist/childish
outgoing/hot-headed
good/ mean, evil
self-assured/ insane

When you place your Sim in town, open the cheat panel (ctrl/shift/c) and type testingcheats on
Then, if you want a neat Sim, type traits.equip_trait GoodManners
slob              BadManners
perfectionist  Responsible
childish         Irresponsible
outgoing       Mediator
hot-headed   Argumentative
good            Compassionate
mean, evil    Unfeeling
self-assured EmotionalControl
insane         Uncontrolled

In some cases, the correspondence isn't perfect -- an Irresponsible Sim might not be able to play with children's toys, whereas a childish Sim could, but with cases like the slob and good traits, you get most of what you want from the cheat. You can also use the trait cheat to emphasize their corresponding traits -- a Sim with good manners who loves to clean, for example -- the truly perfect butler.

Here is the link for cheats:

https://reddit.com/r/sims4Cheats/wiki/parentcheats

Not all character traits can be paired with their "opposite" regular trait. I just discovered that I couldn't make a lazy Sim Responsible. However, I could make a self-assured Sim Uncontrolled.

[divanina]

Discovered this as well.  Love it.  My household has 6 sims with two being children.  So every night, I end up with 2 left over meals from dinner.  Those are turned into sack lunches for the kids in the morning which is a pretty fast interaction.  And finally!  A good reason to brush those teeth! (Builds responsibility)  So now my kids' morning routine is shower, toilet, brush teeth, write in journal (builds emotional control) and get their sack lunch before heading off to school. 

So far I'm dealing with the "loud" phase for the son and the daughter just went into the "bear costume" phase.

Thanks for the brushing teeth tip. "Bear costume phase" haha. Love it. Mine have been "rebellious", "clingy", and now the boy is a "picky eater". "Clingy phase" is awesome - Dad couldn't use the bathroom or shower in peace.

[MarianT]

I experimented with traits and Character traits. The following combinations are possible:

neat and Bad Manners
snob and Bad Manners
slob and Good Manners
perfectionist and Irresponsible
ambitious and Irresponsible
materialistic and Irresponsible
hot-headed and Mediator
outgoing and Argumentative
good and Insensitive
mean and Compassionate
evil and Compassionate
self-assured and Uncontrolled
jealous and Emotional Control
insane and Emotional Control

However, you cannot make the following:

childish and Responsible
lazy and Responsible
goofball and Responsible

It's possible that you'll be able to bring up a child with one of these traits to be responsible, but you can't cheat the trait onto an adult.

If anyone has tested any other seemingly opposite pairings, let me know and I'll add them to the list.

[Carl]

@MarianT thank you for posting this. The compatibility thing makes sense, because while a sim will start with neat and get a starting boost to manners, they can go the other way and develop the bad manners trait if they aren't raised right. However I wonder if the Sim can get responsible via the game if they age up with high responsibility and the childish trait, for example. I did notice when cheating it blocked me from having good/bad manners at the same time (IIRC), though they were not all that way. It was possible to cheat both trait pairs in 4/5 circumstances, I just can't remember which one wouldn't work.

Also I had not heard of 'ISBI' but also came to the conclusion that this pack would make it fun to raise kids without really controlling them, encouraging them to take up skills and helping to raise them. In a way it makes it a much more true to life simulator if you play that way. You really can't control everything kids do, but just try to guide them.

[MarianT]

I think it might be possible to raise a Sim with the childish or lazy trait to be responsible; it's just that you can't cheat that trait onto a Sim. I hadn't even thought to try cheating 2 opposing character traits onto the same Sim.

[Carl]

Heh yeah, it's weird to want both in terms of the character value traits. I was trying to figure out the codes for the cheats page, so that sim had 9 of them. A very conflicted Sim, for sure. Yell at someone or de-escalate the situation? Should she fart or hold it in!?  It's all a roll of the dice

[Playalot]

I've been diving into the new relationship status that you can get after parenting the offspring and they age up to YA and between siblings. I think I have them but if you discover anymore please let me know so I can add them in.

Guided Child: A great relationship with an authoritative Parent
Respected Heir: The best relationship with an authoritative Parent
Obedient Child: A neutral relationship with an authoritative Parent
Repressed Child: A negative relationship with an authoritative Parent
Mommy’s Boy/Girl or Daddy’s Boy/Girl: The best relationship with a relaxed Parent
Provided Happy Childhood: A great relationship with a relaxed Parent
Parented Passively: A neutral relationship with a relaxed Parent
Unhappy Child: A negative relationship with a relaxed Parent
Grateful Guide: A great relationship and a lot of discipline
Oh Captain, My Captain: The best relationship and a lot of discipline
Commanding Presence: A neutral relationship and a lot of discipline
Punishing Parent: A negative relationship and a lot of discipline
Happy Childhood: A great relationship and little discipline
Daddy or Mommy Dearest: The best relationship and little discipline
Passive Parent: A neutral relationship and little discipline
Unhelpful Parent: A negative relationship and little discipline
Thick as Thieves: A great relationship with a rival sibling
Family Frenemy: A neutral relationship with a rival sibling
Childhood Tormentor: A negative relationship with a rival sibling
Super Siblings: A great relationship with an ally sibling
Childhood Buds: A neutral relationship with an ally sibling
Childhood Enemies: A negative relationship with an ally sibling
The Best Lil’ Boo: A great relationship with a Grandchild
Grandkiddy: A neutral relationship with a Grandchild
Plain Ol’ Gramps/Gran: A neutral relationship with a Grandparent
Grumpchild: A negative relationship with a Grandchild
The Grumps: A negative relationship with a Grandparent
World’s Best Grandpa/Grandma: A great relationship with a Grandparent

[Playalot]

Some interesting but not very useful findings:

When your child/teen sim is volunteering to earn empathy they will get chance cards that depending on your answer will grant them skill such as piano etc too.

The journal writing grants writing skill and adults can still write in their journals after aging up and gain writing skill. They can also recount memories and this will grant them a random emotional moodlet. Not that useful as you can't choose it but still kinda interesting.

There is a new club restriction/requirement if you have get Together: +2 Parenting Skill. I guess you could form a parenting club where you pass on Parenting Tips. The interaction Give Parenting Tips skills up sims really quickly in the first 3 levels of the Parenting Skill, after that it takes quite few interactions to reach L4 and so on but it is a very useful interaction if you need to get one parent up-to-speed quickly. Obviously one of the parents needs to have a higher level of skill than the other for this to be useful and the interaction unlocks at Level 3 of the Parenting Skill (click for Carl's parenting skill Guide)

[MarianT]

@Playalot, interesting stuff! I'm sure you've noticed that we now get little descriptors for relationships in general, like Friend and Acquaintance. I love L'il Boo for grandparents.

Back to opposing traits: I was able to cheat 8 of the new character traits onto an adult Sim. My Sims could have either Good Manners or Bad Manners, but not both. I couldn't cheat Responsible onto any adult Sim. I even created a Sim with the traits Perfectionist, Ambitious, and Materialistic, but couldn't get the Responsible trait. @Carl, I don't know how you got 9, but then you're special.

The 8 traits that one Sim can get: Good or Bad Manners, Irresponsible, Mediator, Argumentative, Compassionate, Insensitive, Emotionally Controlled, Uncontrolled.

[Playalot]

@MarianT of course but ones like friend, lover, soulmate etc etc are base game, that list is just the new relationship status names added in the Parenthood pack. 

[scoed]

I learned something, singing karaoke raises empathy. It isn't in the guide but it works. It is a good way to raise a skill and empathy at the same time. Given Children can lean singing you can start them young learning to be empathetic singers. 

Never mind definitely the finding was a result of a bug. Karaoke does not raise empathy normally. see post below for bug details. Sorry I posted about it before verifying it twice.

[MarianT]

@MarianT of course but ones like friend, lover, soulmate etc etc are base game, that list is just the new relationship status names added in the Parenthood pack. 

I know, I was just wondering if they added the descriptors in preparation for Parenthood. I won't even ask how long it took you to get all those.

@scoed, nice tip! I'll put a karaoke stand in the house and take off my earphones.