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The Sims 3 Guide to Having Kids

Pregnancy, Twins, Adoption, and Choosing Boy or Girl

Raising Kids in the Sims 3
Pregnancy/Adoption	Babies/Toddlers	Children
Teenagers	Birthdays	Bake Sales	Traits by Age

Related Links
Romance	Woohoo	Ghost Babies	Game Tips

This Sims 3 Guide was originally written for the PC and Mac versions of the game, but also will help owners of the console versions - PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Please remember some info or numbers may have changed.

In this The Sims 3 Guide to Raising Children, I hope to teach players about many aspects of being a parent and caring for children in the game. What you'll learn about raising kids from this guide is not only for Pc and Mac owners, but also serves the console Simmers who own an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Sim parents have responsibilities to their kids, to give them a good life and raise them to be successful. I'll help with information on the multiple ways to have a baby in the game, how to adopt, and woohoo to get pregnant successfully.

You'll find tips for every stage of childhood in the Sims 3, from baby, on to toddler and finally a child growing into a teenager. The different gameplay mechanics that determine how successful your Sims are as parents are explained, to help their kids make good grades in school, make friends, and study hard. Children raised carefully from babies all the way to adults will be the most successful Sims, because they can have a massive jump start on life, learning skills, and later choose a career and lifetime wish. They'll likely accomplish reaching the pinnacle spot in their chosen career, and completion of the lifetime wish in a shorter life span than any adult made with Create-a-Sim.

This first page deals with getting a kid in the first place, and your various options for doing so. Caring for babies and allowing trait selection is also a highlight. Look to the other sections of this guide for specific articles on raising kids from babies and toddlers, children, and finally as teens.

How to get a Baby: Getting Pregnant with The WooHoo! Method

This is the first and most obvious option for having a child in the Sims 3. Keep in mind that this will make an infant, and they can be time consuming to care for. It is better, much like in life, to have a planned pregnancy that is preceded by some money saving, career advancements and goal fulfillment by the parents. Some players might prefer to adopt an older child instead to skip these tough early life stages.

To make Sims woohoo and get pregnant, they must really like each other. To try for a baby, and expect a pregnancy, you must specifically use the try for baby action. Sims will rarely get pregnant by simply using Woohoo. The relationship bar will need to be very close to full for the action to succeed. Failing at a woohoo attempt can cause Sims' relationships to drop a touch, so trying to put the moves on too early can cause it to be harder to do later. To make Sims WooHoo for a baby, get them feeling into it, and find the action under the romance section. This will also appear as an option when two Sims are relaxing on a bed together.

If you want a greater chance at making babies with the woohoo try for baby action, take the fertility treatment lifetime reward. This will also boost the chances that your Sims have triplets and twins. This is not a good thing if you're a first time parent in the Sims. It can seriously ruin the game. Be sure you've tried the experience of parenting first before taking this route.

Cheating to Have Twin and Triplet Babies
There are no pregnancy cheats to help you have twins or triplets, but a gameplay mechanic does influence this. If you want your Sim to get a high chance of getting pregnant with twins or triplets, as stated above, the first step is likely to get the fertility treatment. If both the mother and father Sims have it, this will help increase the chance for multiples even more. Additionally, having the mother Sim read pregnancy books, watch KidZ Zone TV and listening to children's music on the stereo will boost your chances of multiples. Pam had great luck getting twins and triplets by doing a combination of all these things.

A Simple Cheat for Choosing the Gender of the Baby: For Having a Boy Eat Apples or Eat Watermelons to Have a Girl
The second 'pregnancy cheat'. Before a Sim is visibly pregnant, you should have them eat one of two fruit in order to have the baby be a boy or girl. If you want to have a boy, eat apples. For having a girl baby, eat watermelons. Head to the supermarket and buy the chosen fruit. Buy about ten, that should do the trick. Have your pregnant Sim eat all 10 of them (click the little arrow on the apple icon to queue up individual apples). This is the only way to choose between boy or girl, as there are no console cheats to affect pregnancy.

Being Pregnant in the Sims 3

How to tell if the Sim is Pregnant
Sometimes, but not always, when Sims try for a baby a "Rock-a-Bye-Baby" tune will play. The way you'll know for sure your Sim is pregnant is when she starts running to the toilet with morning sickness. If that's cropped up, the woohoo has definitely made her pregnant. It is during this phase that you should decide: boy or girl?

Visibly and Officially Pregnant
After about a day, your mommy Sim to be will begin wearing maternity clothes. A Sim in the World Renowned Surgeon position of the Medical Career Track can see the gender using the 'Determine Gender of Baby' action at this stage of the pregnancy. If you do this, it will lock the gender in place and cannot be changed. You can use the apples and watermelons up to the day before birth (third trimester) to change the gender of the baby.

Maternity Leave
At this point the Pregnant Sim will be on Maternity leave, and will get paid for days she's supposed to work. This will give the new mom a relaxed pregnancy and a few days to tend to the baby before getting back into the work routine.

The Third Trimester
When your baby's a day away from birth, the mom will be in the third trimester of pregnancy and can't really do much. Focus on keeping her happy to ensure a healthy pregnancy and give baby good traits.

Infant Trait Selection: Keep Mommy Happy!
Some people have said that you should read pregnancy books to allow for the baby's trait selection. From my experience it didn't really matter. The baby gets to choose two traits with or without reading them. What does matter is the mother Sim's mood. She needs to keep her needs met, stress down and stay happy (keep that mood bar high). If you fail at this, the baby's trait selection will be out of your hands. The traits you choose will carry on until moving up to the third life stage from toddler to child.

Giving Birth
Sims prefer to have babies at a hospital. My Sims have had them at home. They just popped up out of nowhere. Other times, it's treated more like an emergency and both parents will want to be at the hospital. At this point, you'll get to name the baby then, if Mom was happy, you'll get to pick the little boy or girl's traits.

For Single Sims: Or How Men Can Steal Child Custody from Women
Here's some help for if your Sim just wants to continue their bloodline, and stay single without moving in any Sims other than a new baby. When two Sims who live separately make a baby, the woman will always have "custody" of the child. So for female Sims, this is no problem. Males will need to convince the female to move in with the baby, then you'll need to take control of the female Sim and make her move out using the cell phone. Wicked Sims might want to make the female do all the work, and move the kid in after it has grown to toddler or childhood phases of life, but you can guarantee good development by taking control.

How to Adopt a Baby, Toddler or Child in The Sims 3: The Adoption Method
The second option for having a baby in the Sims 3 is to use the adoption service. Use your Sim's cell phone to 'call for services', and select the Adoption service. A social worker will come to your Sim's house shortly, where you'll be given the option to choose the gender and age of the child you wish to adopt. You do not, however, get to choose the ethnicity of the child or their traits. You never know how the adopted child will start out. However, you can control whether they later get good or bad traits dependent upon how well taken care of they are, and whether they learned to walk and talk before advancing to childhood.

The third option: starting a family with a toddler in Sims 3's Create a Sim
This last option for getting a kid in the Sims 3 is to make the child when you start the family in Create-a-Sim mode. You do get to select several traits, and determine the looks of a toddler as well as pick their favorite food and music. Once you've created the first child, or even adult in create a Sim you can make them a twin by clicking the ... next to their portrait. However, starting a game with a child can be very challenging. Early in a game, Sims are usually quite poor and it's harder to advance in careers and skills while caring for the kid. Think you're going to get a promotion the next day at work? Nope. The baby was up all night and your Sim had to go to work in a rotten mood. Planning to go to the gym? Single parents will usually need to shell out $75 simoleons for a baby sitter.

Planned Pregnancy
As you can see, the best options for having a baby in the Sims 3 are the first two. You will have control and will be able to decide when the Sims are ready to have the baby. You can even skip the hardest stages of childhood, baby and toddler, by going out and adopting a child. To prepare for the baby, have your Sims work on some skills they know they'll need, save up some money for a crib, high chair and some toys. You may even need to add a room to the house so the kid can have their own room.

I find the best time to have a child is to WooHoo once a Sim has made it to the pinnacle of their career. The work hours are usually very much relaxed compared to lower-ranked jobs, and the salary will provide plenty of money for raising the family. Single Sims will have the hardest time raising a child, while married Sims will have a much easier go at caring for the children.

Related Challenges
Baby Boomer II: 50 Days of Extreme Parenting

Raising Kids in the Sims 3
Pregnancy/Adoption	Babies/Toddlers	Children
Teenagers	Birthdays	Bake Sales	Traits by Age

Related Links
Romance	Woohoo	Ghost Babies	Game Tips

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