Parenthood Challenge
Remember Brandy Broke?
Brandy Broke was one of my favorite sims in The Sims 2 (besides creating a town dominated by aliens by breeding Johnny Smith like cattle) and I loved her back ground story. Brandy is a struggling mom living in a two bedroom trailer who has recently lost her darling husband Skip Broke (her high school sweetheart) to a mysterious pool ladder accident. She’s left alone to raise her two boys, one teen and one toddler, and as if that weren’t enough she’s pregnant. So what if we play with a family in a similar situation? Can your single mom or dad handle it, or will this family take a turn for the worst?
· Start with a single parent with 3 kids: one teen, one child and one toddler.
· The lot must be a two bedroom home worth less than 15K fully furnished; this includes the cost of the lot so simply deduct 5K from household funds.
Ambitious Parent
Mom/Dad has not had an easy life. S/He fell in love with their high school sweet heart and through a series of unfortunate events ended up alone with three kids and no job. S/He doesn’t want to leave the kids alone all day without a parent and can feel their teen slipping away from them everyday. So they decide to make money in small ways on the side while focusing on keeping their family together. It’s hard though because mom/dad is a romantic at heart and misses having someone to hold at night that didn’t also need their bed sprayed for monsters. They can’t help but feel gloomy sometimes when thinking of their lost love. However, the kids are more important right now and so they are determined to be independent and focused on their family…though they aren’t always successful at keeping their desires for companionship at bay.
· Parent must have the Super Parent aspiration and the following traits: family orientated, romantic and gloomy. They must complete their aspiration, max parenting skill, and never have a serious relationship. Parent cannot have a job.
Rebellious Teen
The typical teenage angst was not skipped in this household. This family’s teenager is a rebel that stays past curfew, ignores punishments and wastes their money on frivolous junk. S/He just wants to live it up and mom/dad is getting in the way of that. They have a job but they only spend the money on themselves. S/He has a bad relationship with their parent but tries to be there for their siblings when mom/dad isn’t looking. When not out at the club or hanging at the public pool with friends this teen is mooning over their crush and sending flirty texts. Mom/Dad warn against such a rushed relationship at such a young age as they had made the same mistake choices when they were young. S/He doesn’t listen though, mom/dad doesn’t understand what it’s like to be in love.
· Teen must have Leader of the Pack or Party Animal Aspiration and the following traits: hot-headed and materialistic. They must complete their aspiration, dancing skill (if applicable) and level 5 charisma. They must also have a serious relationship.
Overlooked Child
While mom/dad was trying to wrangle in their clingy toddler and rebellious teenager, the child was outside reading under a tree or swimming at the public pool for hours on end. S/He looked up to their older brother/sister who got to do whatever they wanted and didn’t care what anyone thought. And they couldn’t help but be jealous of their toddler sibling that got most of mom/dad’s attention. Sometimes S/He got ahold of mom/dad long enough to work on a school project and feel that warm moment of attention but it was difficult to get it to last longer than an hour of schoolwork with the toddler making a mess in the kitchen.
· Child must have Rambunctious Scamp aspiration and bookworm trait. They must complete aspiration, dislike toddler and be best friends with the teen. Parent must help child with homework everyday.
Clingy Toddler
The baby of the family cannot get enough of mom/dad. They love their siblings, though it is difficult to get along with their middle sibling, but their oldest sibling is there at night when they have nightmares and helps fill that fatherly/motherly role at least when mom/dad isn’t looking.
· Toddler must have clingy trait. The toddler must max 3 skills. Parent must bathe and read to the child before bed every day. (bath can be done at any time)
Q/A
It’s too hard!
Simply extend the lifespan to give you more time as a family, after all this isn’t a legacy challenge. You want to really get to know and flesh out these characters. Or assume they were left a large life insurance from their significant other.
It’s too easy!
Make the lifespan shorter, or start with no money. This is your challenge, adjust it how you like.
How am I supposed to make money?!
Like the 100 baby challenge it can be tricky, but there are many options like collecting, painting, writing etc. If you have the MC Commander mod then you could enable child support (assuming your story line is that the other parent divorced you) or call it a life insurance check if they died.
Notes
On the Gallery under my username notidoidont I have uploaded a Broke family that fits the rules along with their home similar to the way it was laid out in The Sims 2 in case you’d like to take a trip down memory lane with some updated graphics and game play.
Loved the Broke family back in Sims 2, especially trying to cram all those kids into that tiny house and fending off the repo man! I’m currently playing a legacy, but maybe I’ll try this later.