Hah! You'll have to do better than that if you want to offend me! The nanny is every bit as useless in child stage, since at this point, children don't actually have any needs the nanny COULD actually attempt to satisfy, as children are both controllable, and independently capable of satisfying all of their needs. The only need they cannot EFFICIENTLY satisfy is hunger, but even there, they can feed themselves well enough to avoid starvation. The nanny is basically entirely useless at all stages: Babies, the nanny cannot handle because her only solution to everything is to psychotically forcefeed the baby until it pukes. Toddlers, same problem. Children simply don't need anything she can do. The nanny is completely useless. The only service she can provide is the "adult on lot" requirement, which is more or less completely hokey, but you can satisfy this ridiculousness with even a visitor, who, I might add, will appear with far greater promptness than a nanny, will not charge you money, and will actually be useful and not terrorize your house.
I think the worst nanny shenanigan I've had so far is the one where the toddler was positioned wrong to take the bottle from the nanny plus he was playing at something and not hungry at all so he didn't go for the bottle after she stopped griping and put it down. I then watched to see what she would do. She got about 8 bottles out of my refrigerator before the toddler stopped playing and went for bottle #9. I know I could have stopped it by controlling the toddler, but I wanted to see what would happen. Have you seen what 8 stinky green bottles does to an environment bar? It ain't pretty!
Controlling the toddler would have absolutely no effect. The nanny would continue to fetch unwanted, unsolicited bottles over and over no matter what you did. You'd think coding the nanny AI would be brain-dead simple for toddlers, given that a toddler is capable of making its own requests to satisfy needs, so the nanny merely needs to wander the house until it receives a request, but obviously, Maxis didn't think it over that much.
LOL The nanny sure is a pain in the backside. I've hardly used her since the first time. The only exceptions have been when I sent a newly pregnant mom to work to get a promo before she began maternity leave at the higher salary. I've lost count of the number of babies I've raised in game and haven't lost a single one to the SS social worker. The hardest part, sometimes, is when junior starts school and Mater and Pater are still at work but there are ways around that. One obvious solution is to befriend the nanny and get her to move in ... bingo! You got a free nanny and some cash and you can control her. You can use her cash buy her a cheap bed to sleep on (alongside junior's cot) ... obviously you just chuck her out on the streets when you don't need her any more. She would then remain a family friend ... a helpful bonus for career sims. Well ... it's just a thought.
Heh, well, here's a sadistically hard challenge for people to try: You have: One single mother, a Romance sim at that, with an intermittent on/off fear of baby-related things, and certainly absolutely no wants to do anything with themm them being a pair of twins to be born imminently. A scuzzy house worth about $18K at purchase time, that happens to be rather cramped, and is furnished with a midrange couch, bookshelf, good full bathroom and kitchen, and the crappiest double bed. Two baby cribs. No interior paint or flooring, just bare walls and foundation. A working budget of about $1000. One energizer and a smart milk dispenser. See above with regards to maintaining Gold. A job as a professional party guest, but a mere 3 vacation days which will be received after maternity leave, but all of the early maternity leave money was pocketed by ex-husband, leaving you with one day of income: the working budget of $1000 mentioned above. And just in case you thought this would be too easy....the mother also has the jumping chat bug. Do: Make sure both kids grow up well, having learned all toddler skills, and at least 8 skillpoints apiece by childhood, and at least 20 total by teen. Don't: Die, go crazy, have mom pee herself, or use the nanny. Encore: Get both kids into private school when they become children on Saturday evening. Anyone think they can handle this one? This is my hardest game to date. Or anyone have a harder scenario I should try?
LOL Good to hear! Yes I don't really understand why she feeds them so much. I wonder if maxis will eventually fix her to make her more useful? I doubt it. LOL As for the idea of inviting a visitor over to be on the lot when the parents go to work. I've tried this 4 times now(with friends, bestfriends and relatives) and it hasn't worked once. Oh well, I'll stick with hiring the nanny for that job (yes that's the only reason I hire her). It's no big deal to me. Cass. :bunny:
I concur. Maxis's incompetence in such matters is well known and runs as far back as TS1, so I wouldn't expect a fix. The nanny will always be useless, except when buried alive in the basement. Yeah, it stopped working for me as well in new families, but it continues to work perfectly fine with one family. Either this is some weird flukey bug, or I have an invisible nanny trapped on my lot somewhere, and I can't see it, but it still functions. That, or it's the dead nanny's ghost.
