Nanny

Nannies or babysitters are NPCs that take care of Sims' children, toddlers, and babies while they are at work during the day. In The Sims 3, children don't need a babysitter's supervision. They can be hired at any time by phone. Nannies are available in The Sims 2 and The Sims 4 while babysitters are in The Sims 3.

A Sim can choose to hire the nanny or babysitter on a one-time only basis. The nanny can also "track the schedule" (the work hours) of a Sim; this hires the nanny to come whenever the Sim's work schedule would cause children to be left alone. If there are no babies or toddlers in the house, it is best to have the nanny track the Sim's schedule, so that she will not come while the children are in school. If there are no babies or toddlers in the house, and a Sim returns home from work at 3 PM, it is not necessary to hire a nanny.

The nanny or babysitter will take care of a Sim's children (bathing, feeding, changing, and interacting with babies, toddlers, and children), as well as tidy up the house by doing things like emptying the potty and making the beds. They can be fired or dismissed at any time, and a new one can be hired to replace them.

In The Sims 2, nannies are always female elders (except in The Sims Pet Stories, since elders do not exist in that game), and wear a conservative white blouse, gray button-up sweater, long plaid skirt, and bowling shoes. There are two nanny outfits; one has a green plaid skirt and green collar ribbon, while the other has a red plaid skirt and red collar ribbon. It appears that one outfit is set as the special NPC outfit. The other outfit may be used as the Everyday outfit, but this does not appear to happen for all nannies.

Nannies can have any hairstyle, skin color, and personality. A nanny can be interacted with, and therefore married, asked to move in, or killed off. Players with University should note that a nanny who has idle time may be drawn to a Cowplant.

In The Sims 3, the babysitter is a random teen from the town who will come to take care of the baby/toddler when a Sim calls for the service. Babysitters can be male or female. They are just normal Sims that come to help for a fee, so they can be interacted with in the same way other Sims can. If a certain babysitter keeps showing up for a few days and has a lot of interaction with the toddler, their friendship will continue when the toddler grows into childhood. The two pre-made babysitters in Sunset Valley are Candy Ashleydale and Davy Linnell.

Oddly, if a Sim marries a babysitter in one game, they will no longer appear in other game slots. For example, if one was to play the Bachelor family in one slot and have Bella marry Thad, then create another family and play them in a different slot, Thad would never show up when the player called for a babysitter; it would always be either Davy, Candy or a generated babysitter.

In The Sims 4, nannies or babysitters were not initially present in the base game, but were added in an update released on July 14, 2016. Nannies are random young adult, adult, or elder townies that will come take care of the baby/child when a Sim calls for the service, and can be male or female. Prior to this update, babies would automatically be sent to daycare when all other Sims had left the lot. Children could be left alone with babies, but cannot effectively meet a baby's needs. Based on the announcement post at thesims.com, it appears that this feature is still present, and that hiring a nanny is optional.


 * Hire the nanny
 * Call... &gt; Service &gt; Nanny
 * Fee: §10 + §15/hour
 * Fee: §60 + §10/hour


 * Hire the babysitter
 * Call for Services &gt; Babysitter
 * Fee: §75

The Nanny Necessity
Should a Sim need to go to a community lot, or to work and is the only adult, elder or teen Sim on the lot with the baby/toddler/child, a nanny must be called or the social worker will come for the children instead.

A nanny can be called up to come over once or to track the schedule of an adult to see when the child will be left alone. However, it appears that the nanny only tracks the schedule of the Sim who made the call. She may come if that Sim is at work, even if another household member has the day off. Also, the nanny will not track changes in the Sim's schedule that result from a promotion or demotion, so if the Sim's schedule changes, the nanny will need to be called again so she can track the new schedule. Generally, once a Sim has re-appeared, the nanny will leave, but sometimes they need a bit of persuasion.

In The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, whenever a family is on a vacation and there's at least one child, toddler, or baby left in the house, a Sim needs to ask a teen or older household member to watch over them. If no one is able to babysit the kids, the Sims must hire a nanny before they finish planning the vacation, or they won't be able to go. The nanny will come just before the vacation van arrives.

In The Sims 2: Apartment Life, a neighbor in an apartment building can be asked to watch kids. If this is done, there is no need to hire a nanny. This can be done at any time, as long as the neighbor is not about to walk to work. A neighbor who is watching the kids will continue to watch them even during their work hours, and can be dismissed at any time.

Nanny Problems
Some nannies are more on-task than others, and careless nannies are apt to make meals and possibly start a fire, wet themselves, and neglect the children. There's also nothing to stop them stealing from the Money tree except locking it in a secure room that only a certain Sim can enter.

Feats of child cruelty include repeatedly picking a baby up and putting it back in its crib or on the floor, waking up sleeping babies with music or just to play with them (this is not unique to nannies). A nanny may put a toddler in and out of a high chair and stare blankly at it. A nanny may even make a TV dinner for a toddler, even though a toddler can't eat it, then walk off to pick the toddler up and put them down again. Sometimes, a nanny can do something so silly, that the child/children can be taken away. In The Sims 3, several babysitters have the Kleptomaniac trait, meaning they could swipe something from a household if unwatched.

Nannies can be also quite glitchy. They can become stuck on lots, multiply or simply refuse to leave even if the van shows up. In this case, the simplest solution is moveobjects cheat. The nannies are probably so glitchy because they are not meant to be on the active lot as the parents of the children are visiting a community lot.

In The Sims 3, babysitters were known to take the child when they are going away thus making you lose your child. This has now been fixed with the 1.2.7 patch released in June 2009. There also some babysitters that are not very effective, such as Twinbrook's Abel Bodey, who has the Dislikes Children trait, which makes it difficult for him to take care of them. There have been reports of nannies in The Sims 2 walking off with babies, but it has also been reported that this is equivalent to deleting the baby with moveobjects, and that the baby will appear by the mailbox when the lot is reloaded.