Toddler troubles Hi, I'm new here and have been playing The Sims 2 for like two weeks now. Anyway, I have several families set up in each neighbourhood. One family though (the sim family of me and my GF) have just had twins. Wonderful, I can be a virtual dad, this should be easy...NOT. Babies they're okay, they just poo and need sleep. When they are toddlers, it's a nightmare. Learn to walk and talk, constant attention, more pooing more feeding. If I don't teach them to walk or talk, would this have direct consequences when they grow older, meaning they wouldn't be able to talk during their child stage or adult stage? Thanks.
They'll still be able to talk and all that. But the toddlers usually want to learn to walk, talk, etc. and learning these skills lifts them into a gold or platinum level. The theory is that if your sims transition from one age to the next while in a gold or platinum level they live longer and healthier lives. Get the smart milk, and have an adult in gold or platinum aspiration prepare it for the child. The toddler will glow with a blue light and learn a lot faster. Also, only toddlers enjoy earning charisma points, using the pink rabbit head, so have them keep busy with that toy. Sim toddlers are a lot easier to keep happy than real life toddlers, lemme tell ya.
One thing that really helps me is the hacked sleepy mat for toddlers you can get at MTS2. Having them able to go to sleep at will and not have to wait to be released from their cribs when they wake saves so much hassle. Real life toddlers can sleep on the floor, so I hardly think of it as a cheat. Make sure you watch their hunger and social: those are the two things that can call down the wrath of the social worker. If you have pets keep their dishes full: toddlers can eat that in a pinch. (They throw up afterwards but you don't get in trouble for it.) Mother of the year, that's me. Hey, I prefer for them not to eat dog food, but sometimes ya gotta go with what's available. Another thing pets are good for: a cuddle to get social back up. It helps to have two sim parents, just like in RL. They can spell each other. Teens in the house? Even better.
Think I've got it sussed. Just need make sure the adults have above average Energy so they don't fall asleep. I put a recliner in the room so it takes less time to wake up. My toddler can walk, talk and poo on it's own now so I'm pretty pleased with that. Also got my "Grandsim" to the top of his career ladder (I think).
Do you have a link to that? I have an account at MTS2, but I've searched for "sleepy mat" "toddler mat" and things like that with no results.
Your toddler's aspiration doesn't have to be in the gold or platinum for them to grow up nicely - they grow up just fine in the green. If you don't fulfil any of the toddler's wants, its aspiration will be in the red (not good) which will make it grow up badly. If you feel like getting your toddler's aspiration up a little faster by doing it the naughty way, there is a cheat that will fix it all for you: aspirationLevel <number> (you can choose from 0-5) I recommend that you do it the hard way first, though, because you will be missing out on the fun that Sims 2 has to offer in toddler raising. Good luck!
I think the addition of toddlers and more interaction with babies is awesome in The Sims 2. Sounds silly but it makes you feel like it's own your child with all the attention you have to give them. My GF has gone through the toddler stage aswell as me and we found it quite easy with just the one toddler... with two, it's a completely different story.
Hah, tell me about it. Two toddlers are OK, though, once you have four at the same time. I made a house once with four toddlers, a dad, a mum and a grandma. Now that was hard work! :relieved:
The very first time I played the Sims 2, I had my sim get pregnant. Well when the delivery time came, she had TWINS. Very nice of Maxis to give me twins the first time I was playing when I hardly knew what I was doing. They ended up getting taken by social workers, but that's the only time that a toddler has been taken away. Now I know how to care for them!
Witch Baby and her cousin made a household together where the exact same thing happened. Identical twin girls, first babies ever. They panicked when the game gave them a warning and quit without saving. (They'd already saved the kids.) Their solution? Have me play them to childhood so they wouldn't be taken. The things I do for my kid.
Heh, I remember the first time I got twins. I had tried for a few months unsuccessfully (and I don't use cheats in my game) so when I finally saw the message 'there's TWO new babies in the family' I screamed and yelled out loud! However, we had a repair guy working on the house at the time and he wondered what the heck was wrong with me LOL. Had to explain my excitement and hyperness over having some pixelated twins.
*LOL*, Hugz, that is so funny! First time I had twins my computer crashed just after they were born. Luckily, I had saved just before momma gave birth so I could just go back and have my twins again. It was really rare for me to get twins before but since I got NL I've getting twins quite frequent. I was almost lucky if my sims didn't have twins, at one point.
I've said it before: if they're alive at the end of the day, my job is done. (Thank you, Roseanne.) They get a lot of charisma from the rabbit head, but otherwise, I don't bother with training unless there's an adult who wants to do the training, has a great mood and time and shiny green helmet to wear. Otherwise (as is usual in my painfully realistic households), parents are working, teens are moaning about their social life, and toddler is splashing in the toilet. Even the ones who have grown up in the red seem to do okay. (My expectations are so low!!)
I use smart milk as much as possible. If the person who can make it is asleep I make them get up. Toddlers raised on smart milk tend to skill amazingly fast as kids: I've got several kids who got three or four scholarships the second they changed to teens. It's not that hard to get toddlers out of the red. Just fulfill their social wants if you don't have time to train them. Snuggle/play tickle usually gets them into the green. I don't have time to read to them unless there's a grandparent in the house: the other adults are, like Jiko said, too busy working, and the teens are too self-preoccupied. (Though in a pinch they can potty train.) I always try to do the potty training. It makes life so much more pleasant when they can take care of that need themselves. Walking and talking is just gravy: it's a personal challenge to see if I can teach each kid those things. I have a family of six kids, all of whom were "triple trained" smart milk kids. So that family turned out well. Others, not so much.
