Child

The Child life stage exists in The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4 and The Sims Medieval. Child is the life stage after Toddler and before Teen.

The Sims
Childhood in The Sims can either be the state a Sim was created in, or attained after 72 game hours as a baby. Children do not grow older, and cannot gain skill points. Premade children have no skills. Kids created in Create a Sim may have random or no skills, but children born in-game will always have random skills. They will not be able to use most of them, but children who get high creativity can earn money by painting at an easel.

Unlike later games, children can care for babies. Children should go to school every day to maintain good grades, as they will lose a full grade level if they miss a day. They can regain some of that by studying from a bookcase or on a computer, and can even regain the full grade level if they study enough. Children whose grades remain at "F" for too long are sent to military school and are never seen again. Therefore, it is essential that they go to school every day, on time, and in a good mood to ensure their grades stay high. Children with an "A" average may occasionally receive §100 from their grandparents. The children of the neighborhood can play with one another, and when children are in a house, another child will sometimes drop by to play with them. If they stay late into the night, their parents will come and take them home.

In The Sims, it is possible for children to live alone, be created by themselves and take care of babies. In The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, this is not possible except by killing the adults in-game. It is also not possible in The Sims 3 and the console releases.

Children can die from hunger in The Sims, but in The Sims 2 and all games following it, a child will be taken away by the Social Worker instead.

Unlike later games, it is possible for children to function well without any adults present in the house. However, they would have to rely on good grades, painting, or cheats to keep simoleons flowing in, and on ordering pizza, having a buffet table and hiring a caterer over the phone, or having Servo installed in order to eat anything other than snacks. Also, while children can get bills from the mailbox, they cannot pay them, thus in order to prevent the Repo-man from appearing, the move_objects on cheat would have to be used to delete the mail carrier before she places the bills in the mailbox. With the Makin' Magic expansion, magical children have access to the charm Age of Instant, which will permanently turn them into adults. This is the only way for a child to become an adult without the use of a hacked item or third-party program. Makin' Magic also gives kids a bit more freedom, in that they can go to Magic Town on their own by jumping in A Hole in the Ground.

Since there are no genetics in The Sims, when a child is aged to adulthood, regardless of how it is done, he or she will be given a randomly selected body type, a randomly selected Everyday skin for that body type, and a randomly selected head skin. Therefore, the newly created adult may not look anything like the child.

Unlike later games, children will not be taken away if their motives drop too low; they can even starve to death.

In The Sims Bustin' Out, children work in the same way as they do in the original game. There is an objective for the main character to have a baby with their spouse who will grow into a child after 72 hours of gameplay.


 * Notes

The Sims 2
Childhood is the third life stage in The Sims 2, and it lasts 8 days. Children do not have the Environment motive, but have all the others. Children still have the same Grow Up aspiration they had as toddlers, but their wants and fears are different. For the first time, making friends is important, as is being taught to study by an older Sim. (This is usually an older relative, but it can be an older friend, too.) The school day for children lasts from 9AM to 3PM, Monday through Friday, and they receive homework after each school day. As in The Sims, children whose grades are consistently poor will be removed from the family, this time by the social worker, who can also take them away if their hunger or social motives drop too low, if they are too hot or cold, or if they are left at home with no older Sims in the house. Children taken by the social worker can later be adopted by other families.

For a while after a Sim ages up to become a child, he or she will run everywhere.

Children can be invited over, either with or without their parents. If a child is living in a household, he or she may bring another child home from school, and other children may walk by the lot. Children visiting a residential lot will almost always leave autonomously around 6 pm, even if they are with one or both parents, or if they are visiting relatives. If a child does not leave autonomously, a parent will eventually come to take the child home. Children can be telephoned at any time, but phoning a playable child after 6 pm will result in one of the child's parents appearing on the lot to bring the child home.

Unlike the original, children in The Sims 2 can't live alone without an older Sim present, but can earn skill points. They can ask for (or be offered) lessons on all the original career reward items, and even use some of them independently. Children can also do some household chores, such as cleaning certain items and taking out trash. However, in some cases, children may make messes more easily. When they shower, it is much more common for Sim children to make puddles, although this may also be directly related to their Sloppy/Neat score. They can't cook unless they use the toy oven, but they can still study cooking from a bookcase or the Yummy Channel. They can also eat snacks from the fridge. The Sims 2: Nightlife introduced the inventory system, where leftover food could be stored and retrieved at any time, and The Sims 2: Seasons and later expansion packs allows for leftovers to be put in, and retrieved from, the fridge. Both of these features make kids a little less dependent on adults for food, since they can obtain previously prepared meals. They can go along with older Sims to community lots, although they cannot buy anything. They can, however, try on clothes. Unlike children in The Sims, children in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories cannot care for babies or toddlers, though they can use the "family kiss" and some "play" interactions with the latter. If FreeTime is installed, they can sing the Nursery Rhyme with toddlers who have learned it, and can play with them at an activity table.

A child who is awake when one of his or her parents returns from work will generally stop whatever he or she is doing (even eating or bathing), and run to greet the parent. This action can be interrupted, and the child sent back to whatever he or she was doing. There is a mod at Leefish that will suppress this.

Children in The Sims Castaway Stories do not go to school. This however, gives them more time to learn skills through various ways and make more friends, so that they can focus on careers when they become teens. They can still be removed by the Social worker if their motives go down or they get too hot or too cold.


 * Notes

The Sims 3
Children in The Sims 3 have three traits and take 7 days in Normal lifespan mode to progress to the next life stage: Teen, though it is possible to age them up at any time using the birthday cake. The child stage as a whole appears to represent Sims between the ages of 6 and 12.

As children, Sims will not initially have a lifetime wish, but will be free to build skill levels, pursue hobbies and develop friendships that will affect later life. Some lifetime wishes, however, may become available during this stage as the child's hobbies become more defined, and hard-working child Sims that are assigned one of these early wishes can sometimes even fulfil them before they become teenagers.

For the first time, children can visit their friends' homes, stay at home alone without a babysitter or visit community lots by themselves, but they must be back on their home lot before the town curfew (10:00pm). If a child is out past their curfew, they will follow the nearest older member of their household or automatically head home, after which they will be unable to leave before 6:00 in the morning.

The child stage now marks the point where acquired skills first become visible in a Sim’s skill journal. Children can build all skills except charisma, instrument skills, athletic, and gardening. For some reason, a child's cooking and handiness skills remain invisible until they become teenagers, but all their other skills will display normally.

As of patch 1.6, children may interact with toddlers in various ways. Children can hug toddlers, read toddler books to them, and play peek-a-boo together. They can also feed toddlers on the ground or in a high chair. However, children cannot yet carry a toddler, place them in a crib or change their diaper, which prevents them from fully attending to the needs of toddlers without an older Sim or babysitter present.

In order for the player to select a child's fourth trait when they become a teenager, the child must have a school performance of at least a B, otherwise the new trait will be chosen at random. The worse a child performs at school, the more likely they are to gain a negative trait upon aging up. Children cannot have romance-oriented or persuasive traits like "flirty" or "charismatic," but if testingcheatsenabled true is used, they can sometimes get them by randomly rolling traits.

Unlike previous games in the series, a child will not be removed from the household for getting F on their report cards for a period of time. They may get grounded if The Sims 3: Generations is installed.

Things that Children can do that younger Sims can't: Things that Children can do that older Sims can't
 * Go to school
 * Build most skills (except charisma, gardening, music, and Martial Arts)
 * Have a Lifetime Wish
 * Have normal wishes
 * Have a cell phone
 * Use the toilet
 * Retrieve snacks, quick meals or leftovers from the fridge
 * Sleep in beds
 * Visit community lots or neighbors' homes alone
 * Be tutored by Sims with max logic (includes gardening and charisma)
 * Die by drowning
 * Die by fire
 * Die from a meteor strike
 * Work out
 * Earn money in bake sales
 * Bury objects in a sandbox
 * Socialize with Imaginary Friends
 * Play in a treehouse
 * Dress up in costumes from the costume chest
 * Pull pranks
 * Have Afterschool classes
 * Go on an imaginary joy ride on a couch
 * Go on an imaginary submarine adventure in a bathtub
 * Preside over an imaginary royal court on a dining chair
 * Reinforce and take care of Pets
 * Get Grounded
 * Play with toys (Childish older Sims can)
 * Have bake sales
 * Go for a joy ride/submarine adventure/preside over royal court/have a tea party
 * Play peek-a-boo with Toddlers
 * Play tag (Childish older Sims can)
 * Check for monsters under the bed
 * Donate to charity (Good older Sims can)

The Sims 4
Children in The Sims 4 take 7 days to age up in short lifespan, 12 days to age up in the normal lifespan and 52 days on long lifespan. They have four different aspirations to choose from: Creativity, Mental, Motor, and Social (though there seems to be a hidden karaoke aspiration that some townie children Sims might get though it can't be unlocked by the player and seems incomplete), which are also special skills that only children can learn. They cannot learn any other skills until they have reached level ten of these skills. They have only one trait, which is chosen in CAS, or when they age up from a toddler.

In CAS, their walk style cannot be chosen, and only two voices can be chosen from: sweet and warm. Their body shape cannot be changed except by using the fatness slider, but their face can be modified.

As in The Sims, children can be left at home alone without the need of a babysitter/nanny. They also have no curfew, so they can stay outside of their homes for as long as they desire. Although, owners of the Parenthood game pack can set a curfew for either 7:00PM, 9:00PM or 11:00PM, if the player so chooses. Ignoring hypothetical curfew will negatively impact their responsibility character value.

Children still need to go to school; however, there are no negative consequences for not going to school except a temporary embarrassed moodlet and impact on responsibility. Instead of keeping certain things constantly up, they have to complete certain objectives in order to increase their grade. They can also do extra credit after they've done their homework for that day if they already have a B or A grade. If they misplace their homework book, they can buy another homework book using a bookshelf or use another child Sim's homework book.

The release of Patch 46, on January 12, 2017, added the toddler life stage to The Sims 4. Before that, babies in The Sims 4 aged up into children, as they do in The Sims, instead of toddlers, as in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3.

Children can be taken away on only two grounds: either their hunger motive reaches zero (which takes a very long time), or the remaining teen or older Sims in the household die.

The Sims Medieval
Children in The Sims Medieval are similar to children in The Sims in that they will not grow any older except under certain circumstances. Unlike modern Sim children, medieval children cannot die of anything.

As only Hero Sims can be playable, children will be uncontrollable. However, they can still offer much help to their parents. A hero Sim can put their child to work by having them go shopping at the market or by gathering resources around the kingdom. Married couples can have as many children as they want, but one household can only have 4 children in it. If your Sim has 5 children, you must choose one who moves away to find his fortune, study the Watcher, go to military school, etc. Single mothers can have up to 4 children.

Medieval children do not attend school. Instead they have an apprenticeship relating to their parent's occupation. For example, the daughter of the Monarch would be a Princess, while the son of the Knight would be a Squire. If both parents are Hero Sims, the child will follow the profession of whoever owns the house they live at.

Children can also duel other children with toy swords.

The Sims FreePlay
The Sims FreePlay introduced children in version 3.0 of the game. Unlike other games of the series, the age's name is Pre-Teen instead of Child, which was used since The Sims and The Sims (console). A Pre-Teen is aged up from a toddler using a birthday cake. Unlike The Sims 3, they can study at a desk without having to be at school. They can jump on the bed and look taller than children. They can interact with toddlers, as well as with older Sims.

Trivia

 * In The Sims 3, it is possible for a child Sim to get the romance-related traits (usually reserved for teens and above), such as "Flirty" or "Hopeless Romantic", if he/she is a clone.
 * In The Sims 4, it is possible for child Sims to purchase the "Beguiling" trait that can instantly make another sim "very flirty" from the rewards store. But since the romantic social for child Sims is disabled, they cannot use this interaction.
 * In The Sims 2: Seasons children can study charisma using the Books First for Learning Bookshelf of Education or the "I Object" Litigator Podium. In the base game they can also learn charisma with the Enterprise Office Concepts Bushmaster Tele-Prompter.
 * In The Sims 3, children cannot play the piano, interact with the mailbox, or water plants; however, oddly enough, they can invent things and make potions.