Parenthood | The Sim Environment Sims 4 Guide, tips

Last update: 23 May 2019

Trying for a child and adoption

If you want to go family way, you can do that in two ways: try for your own, or adopt one.

To try for a baby, click a double bed and select "Try for a baby". It is not a method of 100% effectiveness. Therefore it is a good idea to repeat that several times.

To adopt a child, click the computer and select "Family", and then "Adopt". You will then see the children that you can take from the orphanage. As you can see, the children are in their Toddler or Child age - pick one. The adoption procedure costs 1 000 Simoleons.

Then the Sim goes to the orphanage for the baby. After the return, you will be able to change the name of the child. Immediately, they become a member of the family.

Pregnancy and birth

After the "Try for a baby" interaction, you need to make sure that the Sim woman is pregnant. To do that, click the toilet and select "Do the pregnancy test". If, in the upper right corner, there appears information about pregnancy, I congratulate you on your success. If not, keep trying.

The duration of the pregnancy is 3 days - each day is another trimester, At first, the Sim woman feels uncomfortable, due to her morning nausea. Later on, the negative effects wear off and the fact of being pregnant gives her positive moodlets. The father of the baby may interact with it while it is in the belly, e.g. check out on whether the baby is kicking. A very important piece of information is that there is no doctorial leave or maternal leave available - the Sim must go to work so, it is a good idea to quit the job.

When the birth time comes, you can click the Sim and select "Give birth to the baby at the hospital", or wait for the baby to appear in the cradle. If the Sim goes to the hospital, after some time she returns with a baby. Right after the birth, you need to select the name and the surname for the baby.

Having a baby: a baby

This stage in life has been represented very symbolically and it is short. The activities connected with the baby are restricted to feeding (or breast feeding), swaying, hugging, changing and several other interactions. Of course, you do not have any control over the baby. You can end this stage really quickly - you only need to click on the tot and select "Olden".

 

Then, they jump out of the carriage and turns into a Child. You then need to select a new aspiration for them, as well as a trait.

In the case of aspirations, you are restricted to four, in the case of children: Social Butterfly , Artistic Prodigy, Whil Kid and Rambunctious Scamp. This selection is very important. You select one trait, but it is going to remain active until the death. Pick wisely (more about this has been included in the chapter entitled Sim's Life> Personality).

Having a baby: Childhood

Sims in their childhood can be fully controlled. They can learn several basic, general skills: creative, motor, social and mental. Social skills are learned through conversations with the other Sims, or by talking to toys.

The easiest way to learn Mental Skills is to play chess. You can also buy a special toy - the "Young Wizard" set. You can learn Creative Skills buy buying a playing table, children's viola or some other toys, like e.g. a robot.

You can develop Motor Skills in two ways: a much cheaper method is to play on ladders, and the other one is the expensive playing house.

The key issue for the child is a jest to go to school (information about this can be found in the panel, in the Sim career tab [J]). This includes doing homework every day. You can always find it in the Sim's inventory - click it and select "Do homework". Classes take place from Monday to Friday, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m..

At first, the child is a B grade student. To get better marks, you need to: go to school while energized (take a quick shower before going to school) and learn two selected skills, up to level 4. Apart from that, if you go to school with your homework done, for several days, your child becomes an A grade student.

To become an A+ student, you need to do two things: learn four skills, up to level 4 and do an additional assignment for three times. After you do your daily homework, click the homework and select "Do an additional assignment".

It should be pointed out that, when the Sim is at school (this also goes for the workplace), after you click the icon above his head, on bottom the panel, you can control his actions. By default, this has been set to studying. But you can also select: "Learn diligently" (which raises the Sim's grades, but lowers the satisfaction of the need to play and may lead to stressing out) , "loaf about" (lowers the grades but increases the satisfaction of the need to play - useful if the Sim is stressed out), "Leave School early" (the Sim leaves school before classes end, which lowers the grades), "Make friends" (which lowers the assessment of work done, but lowers the need for socializing).

When the time comes, the child grows up and they then become a teen. You can then throw a birthday party (it has been described in another chapter how to do that). However, the most important matter is to pick a new - adult - aspiration, and to pick another trait. Children only have one trait but, as soon as they become a teen, they additionally receive two traits: you select the first one manually, from the full list of traits, whereas the other one is added as a bonus trait and which one it is, is determined by the selected aspiration (To learn how to do that, see the chapter entitled Sim's life > Personality)

Having a baby: teen

Teens are almost adults - they can learn all the skills restricted to adults, perform the majority of interactions, flirting included. Apart from that, a teen attends high school. Also here, he does the homework and - if necessary - does additional assignments. Classes take place from Monday to Friday, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

A teen Sim can also take up a part-time job. You only need to use the phone or the computer for that. Unfortunately, the jobs are not too rewarding and it is much better to focus on developing those of the skills that will come useful in adult life. (select the skills that you develop according to the professional career that you are planning on). If you decide to take up a part-time job, you can go for the following ones: fast food restaurant employee, physical worker, shop employee, babysitter, barista. Some of these jobs are done only on weekends and some during the weekdays, e.g. before or after school.

During your daily visits to the high school you can receive information about various events, when you need to decide what your Sim is supposed to do. Often, there is no saying which choice is better - if you select the less advantageous one, this may have a negative effect on the teen's grade at school.

After you turn from a teen to a young adult, you select the last trait. Now, you have the life of a young adult and an adult Sim ahead of you. You can use all the options provided by the game. All of that, until you go senior and the Sim dies.