Social worker

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The Social Worker is an NPC featured in The Sims series who will take away a baby, toddler, or child if their needs drop too low. They also will come to deliver adopted kids to their new family.

The Sims (Windows/Console) and The Sims Bustin' Out
In The Sims, the social worker will remove babies who have been left alone or left to cry for too long, but will not remove other children.

The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories


In The Sims 2, in addition to removing babies, toddlers, and children whose needs fall too low, the Social Worker will take any who are left home alone, as well as children who are getting an F in school. If The Sims 2: Seasons is installed, the Social Worker will also come if a toddler or child becomes too cold or too hot. Unlike The Sims, if the social worker takes away a child, all other children under Teen will also be removed from the house.

If the Toddler or Child dies, the Grim Reaper will instead take away the child.

Once they are taken away, they will all be available for adoption by a different family (or families). Once a person has the memory of having a child taken away by the Social Worker, they are ineligible for adopting ever again.

The only way to stop the social worker from taking away children without cheats is the "Plead with Social Worker" interaction, which is only available in The Sims 2: FreeTime to Family Sims via lifetime aspiration benefits. Even if there is a wall around the children, the social worker will teleport the child out of the structure and to her car. If she can't reach the child, then she will make the child appear in front of her.

Visits from the social worker are not always negative; in the Sims 2 Nightlife, the Matchmaker may drop her as a blind date, and she also delivers adopted kids to their new families.

Oddly, should a family adopt a child taken from another family, the child Sim will have lost all memories associated with their blood family up until the point they arrived in their adoptive home. The family tree does not get erased, however.

Social workers are considered to be Non-playable NPCs. A neighborhood will have three social workers, who are known simply as "Social Worker". Except for differences in skin tone and hair color, they look essentially alike. They are all adult females, and all have the same hairstyle and outfit. The social workers in a neighborhood have faces that are, if not identical, very similar to one another. Social workers do not have last names, so if the player cheats to make a social worker have a baby, the baby will have no last name.

Social workers have an incomplete character file, and can therefore corrupt game files. Corruption can occur if players interact with the social worker outside of her designated in-game purpose.

The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 for Console
In The Sims 3, as in The Sims, children (but not babies and toddlers) can be left home alone. The Sims 3 requires players to call a babysitter or stay home when a Sim is about to leave babies and toddlers home alone; if the player makes all the Teen or older Sims go past the mailbox, they will be required to either go home or call a babysitter. If a baby or toddler is left home alone with a child, a babysitter must still be called. This is probably because the child is not capable of holding the baby/toddler, feeding it, changing its diaper, etc. However, there are still ways of leaving a baby or toddler at home completely alone. Leave one teen (or adult) at home and make them leave the house by either switching their household (via Edit Town) or make them leave the household via a Miner hole.

Humans and vampires that are below Teen can be taken away by the social worker. If the human or vampire is killed, the Grim Reaper will instead take them away. SimBots and Mummies cannot be taken away by the Social Worker but can by the Grim Reaper. If the Ghost is a human or vampire and younger than Teens, it is possible that the ghost can be taken away by the Social Worker but this is not known.

As in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, if the Toddler or Child dies, the Grim Reaper will instead take them away.

Unlike when the Grim Reaper takes away a Sim, when the social worker takes away a child, items are not transferred to another Sim. This can be a problem if the child has rare items such as the Moodlet Manager. If the Social Worker takes away a child when the player does not have a Teen, Young Adult, Adult or Elder, a message will appear and be returned to Welcome to The Sims 3!.

Social Workers can be added to the Household using testingcheatsenabled (Must have less than 8 Sims or this won't work). They will usually be Young Adults or Adult and range from 1 to 5 traits. The player can split them from the household and save them to the library where they will behave as normal Sims.

In Windows and Mac OS X, if the player tries to save the game when the Social Worker is present in the case she is taking children away, the game will display a message prior to saving.

With The Sims 3: Pets social workers can come to take away any pet that is being neglected, thus making them unable to die of starvation.

Getting rid of the social worker
In The Sims a message will appear informing the player of the social worker's arrival. When she arrives, before she gets to the baby, pause the game, and use the "move_objects on" cheat to delete her. However, if she is deleted, resuming the game, will also make the baby disappear, but the baby will reappear immediately, basically it will be born again. And the parents will clap when the baby arrives just as when it was first born. The player will have to rename the baby again, as the game thinks that it has just born, but the gender and skin colour will remain the same as the first time. The three-day count to becoming a child will restart though.

If playing The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, and a social worker arrives on the lot to collect the children, players can use the (boolprop) testingcheatsenabled cheat to delete her before she has a chance to take them. It is unknown, however, if this action has any negative effects on the game. Deleting her car will force her to leave. Players can hide all Non-playable-characters (NPCs) by using the testingcheatsenabled cheat and shift-clicking a sim. Spawn the NPC and Townie maker, and find the "Hide All NPCs" button. Asistente social In addition to the usual reasons for taking a child, a social worker will also remove a child whose parents have died, which will end their family unit and put their house up for sale for another family.

Trivia

 * The Social Worker is the only of the 2 NPCs (The other being the Grim Reaper) that can remove a playable Sim but only Babies (All Sims games), Toddlers and Children (The Sims 2 and later). However, if the Child or Toddler dies, the Grim Reaper instead will take away the Child/Toddler.
 * As The Sims 3 lacks Memories until the Generations expansion pack, If a child is taken away, it is possible to adopt again. Unlike in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories where Sims with the memory can never adopt again. However, with Generations installed, your sim will be unable to adopt.
 * Regardless of whether there are any objects/walls/Sims that are blocking her, she will teleport and take the Child/Toddler/Baby.
 * This might be because The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories allows Build and Buy Modes to be entered and it is possible to trap the Social Worker or the Child, Toddler or Baby. Same goes for The Sims 3.
 * In The Sims 3, it might be possible for ghosts to be taken away by the Social Worker.