The Sims 4 Parenthood game pack introduces a host of new features to the experience of raising kids in the game. The pack adds a sense of realism and depth to child development and growth with levels of measurable metrics.
You no longer have to guess whether you’re a good parent or not! The pack has everything you need to test your child-raising abilities in a high-pressure environment. If you want to get the Parenthood pack, here’s everything you need to know about it. Our guide will help you navigate the intricacies of Sim parenting to make the most of this engaging expansion.
What is the Sims 4 Parenthood Pack?
The Parenthood pack is an expansion released in 2017 focusing on family gameplay. It allows Sims to influence the development of their children through various interactions and activities. It also gives Sim parents the tools and resources they need to shape their kid’s childhood and teenage years.
The key features of the Parenthood pack are as follows:
Develop parenting skills
Shape your Sim’s childhood
Instill positive character values
Enjoy new family activities
Personalize your household
Parenting Skills
Developing parenting skills is a massive part of the Sims 4 Parenthood expansion pack. The skill determines how effectively your Sim can guide and influence their children’s behavior. The max level of this skill is 10, and as you level up, you unlock new interactions and abilities to help you better manage your children’s character values and needs.
Here are the different levels of the Sim’s parenting skills:
Level 1-2: Basic interactions such as helping with needs, teaching to say please and thank you, and influencing behavior.
Level 3-4: More advanced interactions like helping with school projects, grounding, and encouraging positive behavior.
Level 5-6: Ability to provide full emotional support, more effective discipline methods, and the power to influence more complex behaviors.
Level 7-8: Unlocks additional teaching moments, the ability to remove negative moodlets, and the option to give a second wind.
Level 9-10: Master parenting interactions, including mentoring other parents, increased effectiveness in all parenting interactions, and the ability to give life lessons.
To develop parenting skills, you must engage in various activities and interactions. This includes:
Reading to them a Children’s Books
Reading parenting books
Helping kids with homework or school projects.
Encourage good behavior, like saying please and thank you.
Discourage and gently correct bad behaviors.
Help your Toddler acquire new Toddler skills.
Help your kids build their Child Sim-specific skills.
Tuck Toddlers and Children into bed every night
Character Values
The character value system in Parenthood tracks five different character values: Manners, Responsibility, Conflict Resolution, Empathy, and Emotional Control. Your job as a parent is to instill these values in your child as they grow and become a Young Adult.
Each value is measured on a metric from negative to positive, and your Sim parent can influence these values through various interactions. For instance, when your Toddler becomes a Child Sim, you can interact with them through Teachable Moments.
Teachable Moments occur when your Child wants advice on something, allowing you to teach life values. The advice can be on anything, such as starting puberty as a teen or losing a favorite toy as a Toddler. Each possible answer you give the child will raise one value while lowering another. So, it’s up to you to decide which character value you wish to instill.
Just remember your choice shapes the child’s behaviors in the long run. As mentioned earlier, there are five different character values:
Manners:
Positive Manners: Teaching children to say please and thank you, setting the table, and cleaning up.
Negative Manners: Encouraging rude behavior, like not cleaning up after oneself.
Responsibility:
Positive Responsibility: Completing homework, taking out the trash, and doing assigned tasks.
Negative Responsibility: Skipping school, not doing homework, and avoiding chores.
Conflict Resolution:
Positive Conflict Resolution: Encouraging apologies, resolving arguments peacefully, and teaching to talk out problems.
Negative Conflict Resolution: Fighting, shouting, and encouraging negative interactions.
Empathy:
Positive Empathy: Volunteering, comforting others, and playing with the doctor playset.
Negative Empathy: Teasing, mean interactions, and ignoring other sims feelings.
Emotional Control:
Positive Emotional Control: Writing private journals, exercising, and using calm interactions.
Negative Emotional Control: Having emotional outbursts, destroying objects, and not managing stress.
Impact of Character Values
Character values play a crucial role in your child’s development and affect their traits when they age up to young adults. If you instill positive values, they’ll likely possess positive traits, like “Good Manners” or “Responsibility.”
On the other hand, if you instill negative values, they’ll have detrimental traits like “Argumentative” or “Uncontrolled Emotions.” These traits end up negatively affecting the child’s future interactions throughout their life.
We recommend positively influencing child behaviors so they can possess likable traits. Be sure to encourage good behaviors and offer positive teachable moments.
Parenting Interactions
Parenting interactions are vital to shaping your child’s character values. The following are the types of interactions you’ll need to have with your kid in the Sims 4 parenthood pack:
Influence: Encourage or discourage specific behaviors to shape character values.
Teach to Say: Instill good manners by teaching children polite phrases, like please and thank you.
Help with Needs: Assist children with basic needs like hygiene, fun, and hunger.
Discipline: Address negative behaviors with actions like grounding, time-outs, or firm guidance.
Encourage: Encourage good behaviors to reinforce good habits.
Give Second Wind: Re-energize children who are tired but still have tasks to complete.
A great tip that can help you with these interactions is consistency. Always reinforce positive behavior and address negative actions to instill strong character values.
Similarly, use a mix of discipline and encouragement to guide children effectively. Sometimes, simple conversations with your child may suffice, but other times, a timeout may be the better option. The goal is to find the perfect balance between discipline and encouragement.
Lastly, participate and experience fun family activities to strengthen relationships and positively influence their development. Parents who spend quality time with their children are more likely to positively shape their values than those who don’t.
School Project
A great feature of The Sims 4 parenthood is school projects. These are extracurricular activities that children and teens can complete to improve their grades and develop skills. Parents can participate in these projects to bond with their kids.
Some of the projects you can complete with your child or teenager are:
Solar System Project: Enhances creativity and logic skills.
Volcano Project: Improves logic and science skills.
Robot Project: Develops mechanical and programming skills.
Bridge Project: Builds engineering and creativity skills.
As a Sim parent, use school projects to develop relevant child skills. This way, you don’t have to develop them separately. Always start their school projects on time to avoid last-minute rush and encourage siblings and other family members to participate.
Each project is rated based on three merits – Excellent, Good, and Poor. You should aim for the Excellent metric, which means the project was completed with high quality, resulting in a positive school performance and skill gains.
Good, on the other hand, means the project was just above average and provides moderate benefits. Poor has the potential to negatively impact the child’s school performance as it was completed with low quality.
Building a Family-Friendly Home
As a Sim parent, you must create a family-friendly environment to support your child Sims development. You can achieve this in multiple ways, including:
Creating dedicated spaces for homework, play, and family activities.
Building a well-equipped kitchen to encourage various bonding activities like cooking together and enjoying family meals. This can help build positive family relationships.
Ensuring all your children have a comfortable and personalized bedroom to support their needs.
Providing kids outdoor spaces for play and family gatherings to enhance physical activity.
When building a family-friendly home, you must purchase various essential objects to help create a safe environment for your kids. For instance, a Homework Desk ensures your kids have a quiet place to complete their homework.
Be sure to buy a large dining table for family meals and gatherings. Similarly, get various Skill-Building Objects like easels, chess tables, and musical instruments to support skill development.
In addition, give the kid’s bedroom extra personality so they can express their style and creativity. You can also let the kids showcase their sporty or artistic sides with new family fashion and outfits. The goal is to allow child Sims to express themselves through fashion, style, and decor.
Parenting Challenges and Strategies
The Sims 4 parenthood pack introduces various challenges to parenting to make Sims more effective and active in their children’s lives. Learning how to navigate these challenges can positively impact Sim’s family life and relationships.
Some of the common challenges you may face when parenting are:
Balancing needs: Managing the needs of multiple children while maintaining household harmony.
Behavioral issues: Addressing a child with bad behavior and influencing positive character values.
Time Management: Finding the perfect balance between child care, work, and personal time.
With so many challenges plaguing parents, finding effective strategies that help you cope while positively impacting a Sims childhood is vital. These strategies can help you with this:
Prioritize Needs: Stay on top of your children’s needs to prevent negative moodlets and behaviors.
Use Rewards and Consequences: Implement a system of rewards for good behavior and consequences like grounding for negative actions to guide character development.
Involve the Whole Family: Encourage all family members to participate in parenting and household tasks to distribute responsibilities and foster teamwork.
Stay Engaged: Regularly interact with children and teens to monitor their progress and address issues promptly.
Achieving the Super Parent Aspiration
Achieving the Super Parent Aspiration in the Sims 4 parenthood game pack can be challenging. Your toddler needs to grow up to a Young Adult with at least three positive traits. To reach this, you must seamlessly integrate the character value system, parenting skills, and meaningful interactions.
The final step of the Super Aspiration trait is to go full parent mode. To do this, your Sim must perform 10 parenting actions without interruptions and achieve level 10. Once you successfully complete the 10 actions in a row, you get the Super Parent aspiration trait.
The role model reward trait is the reward for becoming a super parent. Children near Sims with this trait quickly gain positive values and traits.
Conclusion
The Sims 4 Parenthood is one of the few expansion packs with a host of new features for raising kids and parenting. You can add it to your base game to add realism and depth to child development and growth.
Hope this guide helps you have a better experience with the pack!