Social worker

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 and The Sims Bustin' Out
In The Sims, the social worker is an NPC in the base game. The social worker is a woman named Sylvia who will come to take neglected babies from a Sim household (after a baby cries for a projected amount of time). Unlike The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, Social workers only take away babies.

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 younger than teen will also be removed from the house.

If a 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 gypsy 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.

Oddly, Social workers do exist in The Sims Castaway Stories. While they have the same function as in The Sims 2, they sometimes make the child teleport, rather than taking them off the lot. However, there isn't an adoption service in Castaway Stories, so it's unknown whether the child can be placed in a household again.

The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 for Console


In The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 for console, Social Workers will come if you starve your baby, toddler, or child. You get the warning at first:

Example:

"Bob is starving! If he isn't fed soon, the social worker will come and take away all the children in the household".

If you don't feed her/him soon, the car will appear in front of your home. You will get the message displayed above.

In The Sims 3: Pets social workers will come if you treat your pets poorly.

Visits from the social worker aren't always negative. They come to deliver adopted children.

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 reaches 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,. The baby will reappear immediately. 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.

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) testingcheatsenabledcheat 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

 * It is possible for a Social Worker to die in the game without using cheats. It will most likely happen if a child is burning to death and they come right as they are about to die. If a social worker walks through flames caused by the fire, there is a chance she will catch on fire and die if not put out.
 * 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 Social Worker is the only one 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).
 * As The Sims 3 lacks memories (until the Generations expansion pack), it is possible to adopt again if a child is taken away. This is different from The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, in which Sims with the memory can never adopt again. However, with Generations installed, a Sim who had had a child taken away 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, which makes it is possible to trap the Social Worker or the child, toddler or baby. This is also true for The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 (console).
 * In The Sims 3, it is possible for ghost babies, toddlers, and children to be taken away by the Social Worker if they are playable in the household.
 * If a teen and a child are the only ones living on a lot, and a child needs to be taken away, the Social Worker will not lecture the teen(s). Also, the teens won't receive a memory of their siblings being taken away.

Other languages

 * English: Social Worker
 * French: Travailleur social
 * German: Sozialarbeiter
 * Italian: Assistente sociale
 * Spanish: Asistente social
 * Dutch: Maatschappelijk werker
 * Danish: Socialarbejder
 * Swedish: Socialarbetare
 * Norwegian: Sosialarbeider
 * Finnish: Sosiaalityöntekijä
 * Portuguese: Assistente Social
 * Japanese: 社会福祉指導員
 * Polish: Opieka społeczna
 * Chinese (simplified): 社会工作者
 * Chinese (traditional): 社工人員
 * Thai: นัก•สังคม•สงเคราะห์
 * Korean: 복지국 직원
 * Czech: Sociální pracovník
 * Brazilian Portuguese: Assistente Social
 * Russian: Социальный работник
 * Hebrew: עובדת סוציאלית
 * Romanian: Asistent social

pt-br:Assistente Social Maatschappelijk Werker