Social worker

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The Social worker is an NPC who will take away a baby, toddler, or child if their needs drop too low. If a player has the expansion pack Seasons and the child becomes too cold or too hot, they will also be taken away. If there are any other children under Teen in the house, they will all be removed. 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 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.

In The Sims 2, the Social Worker will also take away any babies, toddlers, or children who have been left home alone. However, in The Sims 3, children (but not babies and toddlers) can be left home alone. The Sims 3 actually makes it impossible 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.