EA’s The Sims 4 provides players with tons of opportunities to customize their perfect family, including options to give birth to or adopt a baby. The game allows Sims to go through different life stages, so players can watch their baby go from being a newborn to a toddler and later a child and then adult.
But while watching the progression between stages sounds intriguing on paper, it’s frustrating to witness in real-time, as the game doesn’t allow players to do much with their babies or toddlers. Young children, particularly infants, are treated like accessories in the game, and given how tough it can be to simply take care of them, it gives players less incentive to start families in The Sims 4.
With rumors that The Sims 5 is in the works and could be released sometime in the near future, there’s hope that EA could improve the babies and toddler situation. Future installments in the Sims franchise should consider giving a major overhaul to infants and young kids in order to make the characters more interactive, more fun, and overall easier and more enjoyable to play with.
How The Sims 4 Makes Babies & Toddlers Frustrating
One of the main grievances players have is there there’s little to do with babies and toddlers. Babies have zero objects, aside from their bassinet. It would be easy enough for an upgrade or stuff pack to add objects like a stroller, pacifier, and rattle to The Sims 4, which babies could then interact with. Similarly, babies can only stay in their bassinet. It makes them feel like a piece of furniture more so than anything else since players can only move the crib, not the actual baby. The game should at least allow a bit of variety in terms of where the baby can be held. There should be options to lay the baby down on the ground or let one of the parents carry the baby in their arms.
Babies also do very little in terms of development. When players want to make them walk, they have no choice but to transform them into toddlers. It would be more realistic to have a transitional crawling stage, making it not feel so jarring when the baby goes from laying in their bassinet to walking all of a sudden. Similarly, it would be impressive if the game included other milestones, like if it made the babies babble when they get a little bit older before they learn to fully speak.
Finally, even though really the only thing players do with their babies or toddlers in The Sims 4 is to take care of them, the game doesn’t make it easy. Simple tasks like feeding the child become difficult when they don’t sit still or listen to directions. Players have reported putting their toddler in a highchair, but then the child manages to escape before they can start feeding them. This may parallel the antics parents have to go through when they have a rambunctious toddler, but The Sims 4 could make things a bit more user-friendly. As of now, toddlers and babies in The Sims 4 are more frustrating than anything, but with some minor changes, there’s a lot that could be enhanced and improved upon.