Big Families!

[StrangeTownChick]

I apologise if there is a previous thread about this, I searched and could not find one.

How do you handle bigger families? Some of us are better at it than others. How do you make it possible to have a family of 8 (or more with hacks) and keep needs in the green and wants above green?

Currently, the biggest family in my empire city is the Hong family (I made an extremely traditional Chinese family for cultural diversity). They have eight people: two parents, two teen boys, a child girl, child boy, and two toddler girls. I think it helps to have as many of them get jobs as possible (or as fits into the storyline). Also, every now and then I just pause for a "needs check" and see how I'm keeping up with people's needs. When all needs are good enough not to build up, I either have them skillbuild for a promotion (if they have a job), take care of the toddlers (if they're old enough), or work on achieving their wants (if they're fullfillable).

[Peni Griffin]

First: The pause button is your friend. So is the espresso machine.
Second: It is not possible to have too many bathrooms. A half-wall between toilets makes sims more willing to use them at the same time. Potty chairs cannot be emptied into stall toilets.
Third: Community lots rule! Kids come home with orange fun? Time to take them to the park! Somebody's got a set of unfillable stuck wants? Walk around the neighborhood! Once you get the hang of the curfews and job schedules, you can make three or even four community lot outings in one day, and two are a snap. For example: Parents at work, teens come home at 1; Teen A has low energy, Teen B has low fun. Tell Teen A teen to serve espresso, send Teen B to the the park or bowling alley on his own (if he needs to meet teens), on an outing (if he has friends he needs to maintain relationships with), or a date. When he returns, he drinks the second cup of espresso while the teen who made it goes to the bathroom; he is then ready to do his homework. By the time Teen A emerges from the bathroom, Kids C and D are home from school. Kid C is in the orange for fun, but in the red for energy; send him straight to bed. Kid D is yellow in energy, low orange for fun; Teen A visits the park with him, either just the two of them or on an outing with a mixed group of teens and kids. He can even take him on a date with him, but I don't recommend it. When they return, Kid D's energy is critical; send him to bed as the parents get home. Teen A also goes down for a nap, but Teen B can have a date; when he gets home; parents can date each other if their aspirations are low, ending in a triumphant platinum try for another baby! And so on.

I have more; but it's past bedtime.

[DasRabennest]

Peni is right, community lot usage helps a lot. If you have a family that (for story reasons f.i.) stays at home most of the time, it's a little harder. The last really big family I played was the Svensson family of Pirri Beach. It was husband, three wives, three teens, one child and two toddlers...and a cat. Chaos was a regular guest in that house but also they were almost always extremely happy. ;)
You can really never have too many bathrooms but they were not extremely rich so they had one full bathroom and another one with seperated toilet and tub/shower.
First of all I gave up an assigning special rooms to any sims. They slept wherever...the toddlers had mats around the house plus cots and prams.
The strangest thing was that they were ever the happiest when they invited as many of their friends and relatives over as possible...and then used their influence points to the extremes. Send grandma and best friend of wife one over to the kitchen to prepare two meals while you bath toddler 1. - drop some milk bottles on the ground before the tots get hungry enough to eat the cat's food. Have at least one teen with family aspiration around so he/she will autonomously play with the little ones and put them to bed once they're tired. Oh, and watch interesting neighbours who are very much interested in childcare...they bath the babies, read to them and can be asked for attention by the little ones so they will change diapers also! Then have everyone eat the food prepared by granny and wife one's best friend. ;)
Whenever the child sim came home with low fun, I invited a friend over who played cops and robbers with her until the fun metre was in the green again. The teens did pretty well enough on their own and once the child was ok again I had them all do their homework at once, while the mothers cleaned house and spent time on fulfilling their wishes in rotation. They didn't even have a maid.
Musical instruments are a great source of fun for everyone above toddler age. Whenever the teens were ready with their homework they went over to the garage and jammed while the mothers and little ones listened and danced. Fun up. ;)
Bedtime was always a hassle but that's just how I know it from real life (having a real life big family helps relax a lot ;)) and once all the little ones were settled for the night the teens had time to fulfill some of their social and learning wishes and moms and dad could spend time on their relationships and make new babies. *coughs*...

Of course that nice "routine" went to chaos every once in a while. More than one pregnant wife at a time or a little house fire could throw everything out of the window but I must say it was LOADS of fun.

DasRabennest

[omglo]

I use a combo of a lot of these things. The main thing is that my large sim families live lives that aren't very similar to an ideal simulation of real life. In the larger families, everybody has to pitch in all the time, the kids might not get to bed until 12 AM, the toddlers often haven't seen the inside of their crib since they were infants, and the teens might teach one or more toddler skills. Since the houses are automatically baby-proof, sometimes they go to bed and leave their toddlers to roam the house at night and put themselves to bed on a blanket. As a way to get the family to form bonds with each other, they don't usually spend much time doing something solitary like using the computer. If they're free, their time is better spent spending time with someone else, or picking up necessary skill points. I have a hack that lets kids get bottles for toddlers, which helps and of course multiple bathrooms and potties for the babies. When there's spare time, a Sim will cook a bunch of meals and put them away to use as leftovers, which are especially useful when you have a pregnant sim who has to eat RIGHT NOW or starve to death, since a plate of food seems more filling than an instant meal.

Sending the adults and teens on a date (not together) is a good way to help them roll some quickly fulfillable wants. But sometimes the adults might dip into early aspiration failure where they're a bit weepy and I just ignore it until there's time to deal with it. Usually they rolled the wants to have a large family and it's realistic that they'd have to put their wants aside for a little while.

[Clashfan]

I use many of the same techniques that Peni does and I'm a big believer in the pause button and the espresso machine. I also play a heavily modified game some of which helps facilitate dealing with larger families. I usually only have trouble when one of the Sims is pregnant. That seems to be the time that things will break, burn and clog the most, I'm convinced they programed the game that way but I've been told those are simply random events.

I take full advantage of the days off the mother is given and honestly since I've been letting the ACR determine pregnancies in my game I find that before they run out of days off they are usually pregnant again. I also use the fresh veggies and fish for meals especially for pregnant Sims, if I can get the fridge stocked with fresh produce I can literally feed everyone gelatin and keep their hunger bars full. Most of my born in game Sims have at least a silver gardening badge by the time they are adults since they did a lot of weeding and watering when they were kids so it's usually not hard to have the produce on hand. Then of course the juicer is your friend, quick, easy, nothing to burn and the juice is very filling besides the extra benefits.

I also find it useful if I have a game plan about what I would like the family to accomplish for the day. Once the kids are above the toddler stage they get taken on outings on the weekends so they can hopefully meet some other kids and have some fun. When I've got teens they spend very little time at home as I usually have them off at a community lot on a date or just hanging out. Since I have a mod that allows skilling on community lots they might even be doing that rather than be at home.

All in all I prefer playing larger families rather than small ones, then again I also prefer playing frat houses to dorms or individual housing in Uni. There's just simply more to do and less down time for me.

[sushigal007]

My tip - BUFFET TABLES. Children and up can eat from them, it's a lot of food and it's quick to prepare.

[TychoH]

I have a house with an elder Sim, her 5 adult daughters and 3 granddaughters (2 toddlers, 1 baby). None of them go to work. They live from their garden and the money they got when their father (death at this time) worked.

4 of the 5 daughters are Knowledge-Sims, three of them study all day and I only play with them to have fun, eat, use the bathroom and sleep. Comfort and social are filled when they study together. The fourth Knowledge-daughter is pregnant and she and the 5th daughter (a Family Sim), and sometimes the grandmother, takes care of the children. Granny also takes care of the garden and get help from her studying daughters when there are too many plants in needs.

The needs of the toddlers are first priority, second are the needs of the pregnant daughter and the Family-daughter because they care for the children. Third are all the others. Two bathrooms is a must, and multiple Sims with a lot of cooking points are great. Multiple things for them to become happy (garden, television, dartboard, chess) are also a must.

When the 5 daughters were young they had another sister and a brother, who are moved out. All 7 were born in just 8 days and all learned to walk, talk and use the potty. It was really busy for father, mother and the grandparents. Grandfather died and grandmother got water of life to be alive when the youngest children were toddlers. Because toddlers' wishes are first, the parents and grandparents were not always happy... but most of the time they were. They did rotations, when father taked care of his toddlers, mother feeded the babys and the grandparents were asleep. When the father was taking a shower, go to the bathroom, eat and sleeped, grandmother takes care of the toddlers, grandfather taked care of the babys and mother was too far in her pregnancy to do a lot.

[annoainthere]

It's all in the ages too, I find it handy to have 1 grandparent around to look after the children/toddlers/babies, or just for keeping the house clean and tidy.
Also keep a routine with the family - especially if you do not have enough bathrooms! I tend to split the family in half - or work in pairs. It's easier and you know who has done what and when. Keep your pairs or splits in similar ages - as that usually means they have approximately the same need levels.

If you have a family with no babies and toddlers its much easier to control, I find that babies and toddlers get overfed when there is more than one sim capable of handling them in the family. I had a family with 2 adults, 5 teens and 1 baby.... lets just say that after bottle number 7, that baby was well fed. So that pause button is your best friend especially when cancelling baby/toddler interactions.

Oh and lots of concentration - you have to constantly flick through all the people. When a crises happens then and only then will I cheat and use a modded item to increase needs. This is where your Aspiration Benefits come in handy - so if you are able to fulfil wants do it, the more aspiration benefits you have (the slower motive decay benefits in the first column), the easier it will be - the less attention they will need to their needs as they will decay slower.

Also always handy to keep a few Sims with high cooking skills to prepare meals, other skills can be learnt as needed - but the better the food the less time spent eating and more time spent keeping their other needs in the green. As I find the preparation and eating time for sims is ridiculously long. >.<

[zumppe]

I love big families, and have very few mommy-daddy-one or two kids-families. Usually a family consists of possibly grandparent/s, adult siblings (2-8), and their spouses and kids... so there are always several adults to take care of the kids, to bring home the bacon, and keep each other company and entertained.

The pause button is definitely my friend, and the testingcheats; the sim's motives get drained too fast and take too long to fill (I mean come on, who eats a friggin sandwich for two hours??), so I just drag their motives up or down when needed.

Big families are great, small families usually bore me. When there are 10-20 sims in a household (plus guests), there's always something interesting happening!

[Lady Scarlet]

Since I started playing Warwickshire: A Renaissance Challenge I learned a few tips about how to deal with big families, but I think the most important thing is to start with two or three member and then add more (like ... have two adults and then have them have children, grandchildren and so on).
Progresses gradually and don't rush with too many sims from the beginning of the game, because there's no way to deal with that >.>
I've always like big families (families with only 4 members were always boring for me), but now ...

Well, I have a family who had ... (just let me take a look and count) ... eleven children born between 1597 and 1617, with two parents and two servants (one adult female and a teenager girl).

It's always easier if you have three persons to watch the children, because now I remember that there have been some years (more exactly days, but in the game I call them years) when two of the adults were constantly awake taking care of the children.

I think that having a well organized not too big house helps.Not too many rooms for your sims to roam in vain, but enough for all of them.You have to have somebody too cook for everyone (few times a day) and somebody to clean the house, but I don't think hiring a nanny/butler/maid is indispensable, because I always play without them and everything is fine.Maybe the beds aren't always made, or the dishes aren't always clean, but ... it's still ok.There's food for everybody and a place to sleep and a loving family.

Oh, and another tip.I don't sent the children to school, but if you want to, "Playing Red Hands" always helps if a sim's fun bar is low ^^ And it doesn't take too much time (good for adults, children, teenagers and elders too).

Also, if you want to have somebody to help you around the house it's better not to choose a grandparent ^^" Choose an aunt, or a friend or another adult.In case of elders their comfort bar comes down too quickly >.>

[StrangeTownChick]

I once had a family called the Palentas. It started with two parents and a child daughter. By the time Joe and Reyna were elders, Nikki had moved out and had a child of her own, first son Jeremy was in his late teens, the first set of twins were in early teens, and I think the second set of twins were barely children (no cheats required for two sets of twins!). In that family, it really helped that Joe worked all day (so he wasn't one more sim I had to watch) and Nikki was always available to help with the first set of twins, and Jeremy to help with the second.

[katya_stevens]

Another one echoing the pause button -- it's good to pause and have a breather every once in a while, check up on motives and aspiration. I will admit to using quite a few hacks (MATY's baby controller and bathroom uses you, as well as an auto-do homework are the main ones) to autonomise some actions in the house. You can definitely never have too many bathrooms (if I use a real-world house plan, I usually end up with more bathrooms than originally in the plan).

For toddlers potty training is the priority; the blankets which allow them to put themselves to sleep is also good as then you only really need to worry about keeping an eye on energy -- I only use the blankets during the day as I have a mod to make toddlers sleep through the night.

Red hands is, by far, the best thing in game to raise fun. Four games (about an hour sim-time) will turn a bottomed-out fun bar in to a maxed out one. Rock-Paper-Scissors does a similar thing for social, but unless your sims all avoid contact with each other this shouldn't be necessary.

Motive priorities: when I had a family of eleven sims (grandmother, parents, eight children), about half would have dinner and half would have breakfast. The ones who had dinner would get fed at school/work and thus only need a meal the following morning, the ones who had breakfast would need dinner that day, but not breakfast the following morning. The variable meal controller from here could help as it allows more than the default six servings -- alternatively, build a kitchen with at least two fridges and two stoves and plenty of counter-top space.

Getting everyone to help out with the younger sims is great -- children can play with toddlers (and with a mod get them bottles), teens can help teach toddlers skills and help children with homework. Elders if they live on the same lot can also help out; if they don't, with AL and a mod they can come over and be temporary babysitters.

If a sim has any specific wants that can be filled, I fill them. A lot of my sims end up perma-plat thanks to FT during or just after university so I don't have to worry too much about keeping aspiration up.

[Peni Griffin]

I am always spamming people with the toddler raising advice: have a pet, and invite people over so you can influence them to do things. In addition to the free meals and pet beds, pets and toddlers can maintain each other's social scores when everyone else is conked out asleep. So I'm glad other people said it first here.

Carve out time to help the kid with homework the first time they bring it home - and any older family member can help; teen, grandparent, live-in aunt - and you'll never have to do it again.

Give up the idea that you can control everything - you can't, you won't have as much fun if you try, and if you let them, the sims will hand you better stuff than you would ever think to have them do. Teens tucking in children almost always happens spontaneously and it's a wonderful animation.

Tight and beautiful relationships get built within large families without your attempting it. In my game, Harris Hawkins appointed himself primary caregiver for his sister Pigeon; the three youngest Casa children developed their own tight-knit faction in the larger family while the oldest, Estebanico and Susana, are a team against the world regardless of their personal differences; Sharla Ottomas is her mother's pride and joy, the twins have a mutual support subculture (though you couldn't find two twins less alike in behavior and personality and they reserve the right to rag on each other) and Theodora and Petra are close as only two girls who share a room and a closet can be; most of the Gavigan family can go jump in the lake as far as second-born Ezekial is concerned, but his little clone-sister Naomi is something else again. Intrafamily conflicts also spontaneously generate and add drama: David Ottomas is constantly on the outs with his parents and everybody's worried about Tommy, but Sharla always stands ready to act as intermediary; Ginger and Georgia Newson were at daggers drawn while Georgia was in high school and only started to make up when Ginger's first baby was born and Georgia had to step in and take care of him; the Hawkins twins competed with each other until their baby sister was born and they formed an alliance against the intruder. And you should see what goes on in the House of Fallen Trees, and my large university households!

Relax, roll with it, and rotate constantly among family members to keep up with going on without trying to control it beyond forestalling real disasters like fiery death and the social worker.

[Gcgb53191]

... when I had a family of eleven sims




How do you have eleven sims in one family?!

[Julieryc]

4-7 people is my favorite family household size - 8 begins to get a bit taxing/needing to go at slower speeds to monitor all of them. (The craziest household I had was a family that had twins on their first birth; the mother immediately got pregnant again and had quads because I stupidly had the whim to hit "random" on the selection, and during her first trimester her husband was abducted by aliens! Twin toddlers + five babies + 2 sim adults = insanity. (Snapdragons are good for Toddler Insanity Times, although rather cheat-y.) I have a rule that all toddlers must be trained in the toddlers skills before they grow up, so my adult Sims often take days off to faciliate this. I teach toddlers to walk/talk/nursery rhyme/potty ASAP. Smart milk is invaluable.

Advice for playing the huge families who occasionally come along? Use good houses. I find it easier to keep track of everyone on a larger lot with a wider house than it is to stack everyone in 5-6 levels of a small home. Use adequate-sized rooms and hallways - if your sims get stuck on the front porch coming home from school, add more porch/stairs/doors so that they have an easier time of it. Traffic jams on the stairs are the worst and should be avoided by installing dual stairways whenever possible, and not using staged/split-level stairs (my sims always get stuck on the landing.) You can get by with small (single bed-nightstand-single bed, with no dresser and the door placed on the nightstand tile) to fit 2 sim children at once, even if you're not using bunk beds.

Free Will On is a must. Otherwise, unless you're pausing super-frequently, you're going to lose track of someone and they're going to pee themselves in a corner because you've forgotten about them. (I never play with Free Will Off anyway, but I can't imagine trying to run a house of 10 with Free Will Off.) I don't use Macrotastics, Bathroom Uses You, or any of the "make your life easier" MATY mods, so the pause button is essential when running a home with >8 sims. If you have pets, designate at least one person the pet-feeder and make them check the dishes at least once a day.

If you make your children study nothing else, have them study Cooking, so they have at least 3 Cooking skill points upon becoming Teens. This will decrease fires. Keeping 1 Teen at home (if you have no elders/aunts/etc.) will help financially if you're shaky - losing $89-100/day can easily be made up, especially if you have the secondary Aspiration and Aspiration Perks and can use them to either Write Restaurant Guide or Invest or Give Financial Consulting. (Fishing, if you have room for a pond on the lot, can help stock the fridge, or you can sell your fish-on-a-wall plaques. The harvestable produce of Seasons is also good.)

The TV is invaluable for a Fun item. I also love chess boards, because they're compact and happy little Sims will autonomously use them, befriending their siblings in the process. Easels, instruments, etc. are nice if you can fit them. If you don't mind wasting good skilling time, you can always deal with feeling overloaded by having the youngest Sims sleep all night, or by getting everyone on non-synchronized sleep schedules so that only half your Sims are awake at once. In general, my large families definitely never end up running on a realistic schedule, but I don't think most people's sims do.

EDIT: Gcgb (person above me), you can create and modify a userstartup.cheat file to increase the maximum number of sims (and pets) on a lot. IIRC, there's also a hack that does this, although I don't know if LotFullOfSims is still up to date. But the userstartup.cheat is easy to make. Just a warning: if you do, your graphics card/processor/computer in general may have difficulty handling the load, depending on its specs.

[omglo]

How do you have eleven sims in one family?!I don't know how Katya did it, but here are the instructions and mod I used.

http://www.affinitysims.com/forum/index.php?topic=48.0

[katya_stevens]

How do you have eleven sims in one family?!

Mods :) I personally use Bigger Families (http://drupal.cyjon.net/node/141) by Cyjon (has a fix for pet pregnancies) and also have edited my userstartup.cheat file to allow move-ins from neighbourhood view. (I also had triplets&quads from Simbology which helped cause such a large number of children: twins, then twins again, then quads. By the time the quads were toddlers the eldest twins were teens, so I had almost a 1:1 ratio of toddlers:carers, but it was still frustrating to say the least.)

[Peni Griffin]

Julieryc's absolutely right about the house! My Gavigans had a much harder time with two kids in a Tidy Tudor than they did with a full house (two adults, two elders, three teens, a baby, two pets - no hacks; I don't think I could have moved another adult in, but you can grow a larger family than you can build if it includes elders and pets) in a Craftsman with a completely gutted and reconfigured first floor, filled-in mezzanine for a third second-story bedroom, and a finished-out attic for two more bedrooms, another full bath, and a rec room.

I find babytime is easier with a breastfeeding mod. When people try to feed the baby anyway, put the bottles into inventory; then you can haul them out for emergencies when the kids are toddlers and no one can get to them to feed them soon enough to suit you. If you're really desperate, you can put trashpiles into inventory to be thrown away later!

On the aspiration front, it can be worthwhile to learn Lifelong Happiness and get the slower mood decay, so one good dream date will tide someone over for two or three days. Make sure to lock any high-scoring wants you think you're likely to be able to fulfill. My poor Abuela Iana would have gone platinum when her toddler grandson grew up well, had I remembered to lock that want; instead, he did it while she wanted a date, a relative to get engaged, a relative to get married, and to slow dance with somebody. Very frustrating!

If you really can't get your parents onto a community lot, it's possible for a loving couple to have a good date without ever leaving the house. Just have one ask the other "out," or if he likes what he sees, as soon as the kids are all occupied, and take them as far as you can in the breathing space, just like real couples do to keep the spark alive. My Clovis and Sadie Point once had a dream date that involved slow dancing around the kitchen, canoodling on the couch, feeding the baby, potty-training the toddler, making out, changing the baby, woohooing, and then feeding and reading to the toddler. For make-up woohoo after a caught-cheating event, however, they had to invite Granny over to mind the kids; but they combined the trip out with a stop to buy clothes for the upcoming birthday.

Be flexible!

[Sunbee]

Physiology is also good for keeping needs up, as are the Freetime perks. I usually have one or more stay-at-home sims. Preferably a family sim or a popularity sim so I don't have to worry about aspiration points too much. (Most of my pop sims obligingly roll be best friends with toddler wants.) It's harder if you're trying to have them climb the career ladder as well.
Children can teach the nursery rhyme, so unless someone has that specific want, I have a child sibling do it.
If you've got room for three tile wide halls, that's helpful. Put in a toy stove for the kids to autonomously feed themselves if things get too hectic. Pet beds are good for toddle naps, or one of the cc objects that works the same way. If you use aspiration rewards, smartmilk and energizers.
Oh, gardening is as much fun as red hands, and a great between school and homework activity which saves you from the Oops-out-of-food moments. Fishing isn't quite as much fun, but builds social, and can be cooked straight from inventory. Or, if you like to plan ahead, have the grownups make a bunch of meals for inventory in advance of the baby boom.
I'm using BoilingOil's larger household mod here: http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/thread-2139.html

[larky]

All my biggest families are extended ones. Even if the kid to adult ratio is equally high, having more adults on hand makes it easier to always keep somebody ready to deal with any emergencies.

Besides that, I usually find it's easier to deal with big households if I worry less about trying to make sure I remember to pay attention to everyone and instead design lots that'll let sims take reasonable care of themselves (kitchens and bathrooms centrally located, plenty of fire alarms, sufficiently comfortable furniture, no objects they'll play with until they starve, etc., plus all the stuff they'll flock to left someplace I can watch without moving the camera). But I'm not sure why you'd need more than two bathrooms for any fewer than twelve sims, unless that includes several dogs. They don't take *that* long to pee and shower...

[StrangeTownChick]

Also, for skillbuilding, have them do things that benefit other sims. Cooking- serve food for everyone. Creativity- play piano so people can dance. Logic- play chess and bond. Cleaning- clean teh actual house instead of studying it to bump up everyone's environment scores.

[maxon]

I have had big families though I tend to go for smaller numbers in general. The biggest at present is 12 but I've played up to 16 at once (and more on special occasions). I agree with Peni about the pause button and with whoever else it was who said you need to flick constantly between family members (space bar). You get used to it. It helps that I don't play either children or toddlers - they do their own thing for the most part unless being interacted with by an older sim.

Each family usually has a rhythm for the day and with families with children this usually follows a fairly conventional format. I like sims out of the house (reduces the numbers) so children go to school and most adults work. Quite a few elders work too. There are some sims that stay at home but few. In the 12 sim family it's 2 people: one is a conventional (bored) housewife and her mother-in-law who has retired. They dislike each other. Anyway, the family is rich enough to hire a maid so they spend the day pursuing their interests and caring for any babies and toddlers which means everyone at home is generally green-gold-platinum by the time the others start arriving home. Teens generally come first and, as often as not, go straight back out again to work. Children next. I do use Homework Sometimes Faster (and BUY) which means children (and teens) don't always get homework and some pupils enjoy school. This means that some kids can do their homework straight away (or not at all). Then they go out to play - whatever they want to do (unless they have a chore - this is usually something like feed the fish). Some kids need to get their fun up so they play first. The evening meal is served in the early evening and I use the call to meal option which generally pulls in all the kids. Toddlers are put in high chairs before the meal is served. That way they get fed with the family. After that, the kids either do their homework or prep for bed - which means using the bathroom. As I use BUY, this just involves directing the kid into the bathroom. Fortunately, Pescado designed the hack so they do things in an efficient and sensible order - pee first, then shower. Once out, bed. I send children to bed (and put toddlers to bed) mid-evening. This allows you again to effectively reduce the numbers in play. Evening then allows me to concentrate on the needs of teens-elders, particularly those who have been at work. Everyone BUYs and is in bed generally by 12 midnight or 1am. Any baby-making generally takes place around then (though it's possible at other times too). The only sims on their own cycle are babies - their needs are met as and when needed. I also use Inge's sleep later hack which means, once in bed, the sims stay there till morning bar stuff like belly-popping. Toddlers might wake up but they get to stay where they are unless I can be bothered to get someone up (or a teen comes home after sneaking out) in the middle of the night and let them out. They occasionally escape. One or more toys are always within easy reach once they're out of the cot.

One thing I do which I think most people don't - or actually one thing I DON'T do which most people do is have multiple bathrooms. I can't stand that. It's very un-English. If I ever DL a house with an ensuite bathroom for every bedroom, you can be sure I'll rip 'em all out. Maximum number of bathrooms is usually two - 2 1/2 in the biggest houses (i.e. a loo and washbasin). The thing about using BUY is that it does control the bathroom situation only allowing one in at a time and making sure they do everything while they're in there.

[Simsica]

I use Community Time Project hack and *love* taking my Sims to com lots. This means that some of the Sims are out of the house most of the times, leaving me to control only a subgroup of them either on the com lot or the home lot. During the week, adults and some elders are at work (typically 9-5, mon-thur), kids at school, tots in kindergarten. (It seems that my households, no matter how big they are, are mostly empty most of the time. Who knew?)

I don't care much for any motives other than hunger and energy. I use a mod for stopping serving meals so their feeding times must be controlled by me entirely, which is cool, since this way they have meals together as families should (or they do on weekends, when they're all home for it) and when I tell them. I hate them napping around so I oversee their energy bars like a hawk. Anything else they can take care of by themselves, with a little help from hacks (those that correct those stupid codings that would lead to death by the excercise bike or hot tub or a similar high-advertising object).

I use snapdragons when I have to, though I had to make a deal with myself as to not feel like cheating - they must be replaced (bought anew) each rotation cycle and they're always priced "ridiculously expensive" (they're flowers, so they can't last forever or so I reason; this also gives my florist something to do and keeps their business, well, busy and profitable).

But ordinarily I don't have too many big families. And right now, with my hood overflowing with romance Sims (a complete statistical accident) I don't think I'll need to worry about this issue any time soon. Unless risky woohoo does its bit, of course.

[Saturnfly]

I love big families just as much as the smaller ones, there's so much going on that it's impossible to get bored with them.
As Peni said, the pause button is your friend. Especially at 6am when everyone gets up at the same time. P:

I try and 'encourage' my sims to be as diverse as possible. I like having book worms and surfer teens and rebel kids and kids that like dressing up as dinosaurs, etc. It's fun watching all these different personalities interact with each other. Of course it's chaotic, living in a big family (from what I've experienced staying with friends) is rarely peaceful, you don't always have the house to yourself, and when you do you make the most of it. But it's so much fun because of the challenge. ^^

[GEGNER]

I like how everyone else has all these tips on how to manage big families while my families are always big and I just let free will do its job and then fix any catastrophes.

So I guess have a bone phone and lock up your cowplant is my advice.

[wildsimmers]

Master Controller and Portrait mod!

[NiallHoranIsMine]

I'll tell you what I did with my Dreamer family. It's huge!
Cass and Darren currently have 7 children (counting Dirk!) with 1 maybe 2 more on the way :O
Well first of all....hehe.....the Pause button and Expresso machine became my BFFs! And if I got really desperate.....So did maxMotives!
OK so they had 2 adults, 2 teens, 2 kids, 2 toddlers and 1 maybe 2 in the womb. Ok, so their house has four bedrooms. So obiviously, I had the Master, and then a Nursery (so if one of the tods woke up and started crying they wouldn't wake up the older kids) and one bedroom for boys and one for girls.
OK, so right when Dirk became an adult I moved him out (thank Gawd!) Adam, Chris and Edward (boys) shared a room, Brooke (girl) got her own room and Fawn and Greg (twin tods) shared the nursery.
I always keep the adults at work, painting, playing with one of the tods, eating, or on their bed.
I keep the tods in the cribs, in someone's arms or in a highchair at all times! They get a lot of sleep which is good, they eat and get changed when they need to and to fill up the Social and Fun one of the adults played with them at all times.
As for the older kids, I always delete their homework using moveObjects on (I'm evil!) so that's out of the way. If their Hunger meter isn't in green they get a snack or get leftovers when they get home. Everyone eats dinner whenever he or she is hungry!
Since the teens got home two hours before the kids, I usually had them relaxing on their bed or watching TV or working on a hobby if they didn't bring a friend home from school.
When the kids got home, I deleted their homework (*grins evilly*) and if they had a friend with them they played. If they didn't, they watched TV or played in their rooms.
Cass always watches TV or is on her bed. Darren is always painting.
Everyone goes to bed right when they're tired enough and everyone above the age of Tod usually got up at 6 a.m.
Sometimes the Tods would wake up in the middle of the night and cry, but I usually ignored them unless they needed a diaper change.
That's how it was until I finally got enough scholarship money to send Adam and Brooke to college. Only four kids now! Until the baby(babies) are born....uh oh