how aggravating is it whan your new to the game and your don't cheat with money and your sims only can afford an apartment and your mother sim gives birth to twins. without your permission. I think if your not an experienced player of the sims 2 you may get your babies stolen by the social worker guarantee.

one time in the sims 2 when I was a newbie I got so mad at the social worker i punched my monitor and shook it. this is what happened and I was just a newbie. I had one child and one infant and i worked my buns off trying to work off the mothers tough pregnancy and then finally the baby was born but my child was failing in school with tons of homework so along comes the social worker along with the warning sign and i thought she would just take my child but no SHE TOOK MY BABY too and the screen left me with no interaction and after all that work

just because my child was in too bad a mood to do his homework and the pregnancy and my guys job on top of things i wanted to bust that social worker up. EA made it so if one child screws up in school all children toddler and infants in the whole family lot will have to be removed. and at that time I didn't know I could ever get the kids back but in the sims 2 you can adopt the same sims that were taken. with in another family in the neighborhood but i didn't know so i was PO-ed.

have anyone else experienced the social worker anger like this and were a newbie at the sims working vary hard and bam the game slaps you in the face also if one child goes hungry all children toddlers and babies will be removed in the sims 2 from your family lot

I've never had the social worker come in normal gameplay, only when I'm doing challenges like a poverty challenge or a 7 toddler challenge - but that's mainly because I work really hard on making sure the children do their homework, or if I have a family that are poor and have a lot of children - I tend to use boolprop to homeschool some of them sometimes because I'd rather skill some instead to help them get scholarships/jobs in the future.

Just a heads up, you should change the title to something about social workers, because your current title is kinda misleading. I was expecting a discussion on having a sim with no money and then they have twins instead of just a single birth - which I can relate too, as my poorer Sims with small houses always seem to have twins, whereas my sims with bigger houses that could accommodate multiple births always seem to have 1 child.

I had a pair of children taken when I was fairly new to the game as I thought them being home for an hour after school was okay. I had played sims 1 without cheats (didn't know about them) so sims 2 was pretty easy for me. It really is how well people play the game. I just did an orphan challenge with no easy cc items, with one teen, 2 kids and 3 toddlers. It was hectic and I had one skin and bones pop up for one toddler, but I still had them all potty trained, learnt to walk and talk. I think one toddler missed learning to talk and that was all. I called the nanny constantly for back up, but no social worker. So sorry to say it is how well people play the game and knowing the tips and tricks. I've noticed on Let's Plays people often play on too fast a speed, which means they miss things and they don't do things soon enough. So they wait too long to take a toddler to the potty, or let a pregnant sim paint too long, or they use low fun ways to gain after school fun. If you're a new player I recommended not taking on too much at once, playing at a slowler speed and not letting bars drop into deep orange before taking action.

The social worker has taken away my sim children once, and there was a threat but didn't take the toddlers away. I was pissed when Beatrice and Benedick Monty were taken away for being left home alone too long when they were still children when Antonio Monty was abducted by aliens. There were no other adults in the house, and since it takes several hours for the Sim to come back from the abduction, the damn social worker took them before he came back.

Titania and Oberon Summerdream were more interested in woohooing than feeding their born in game twin toddlers, and I got a warning from the social worker about their hunger bar. It was only by the grace of Titania's plead with the social worker FreeTime Benefit that they weren't taken away.

My advise to new or less experienced players ( and those of us who just want to relax and enjoy game play!) give yourself permission to bring up the "cheat box" and type in "maxmotives" as often as this is helpful. This avoids needless tragedy and lost game progress. I believe in keeping my game fun and stress-free. (smile)

Jo is right. Back when I played without cheats, I hardly lost any sims to the social worker. I had some unfortunate events, with fires getting out of control, or kids getting home before their parents, and other such things. I had one time in TS3 where a single dad managed to set fire to himself, and I'd forgotten to give them a pool (stupid, stupid, stupid!). Both the kids were picked up by the social worker...

Anyway, the secrets are to keep needs in the green, and prioritize needs that are life-threatening and/or needed to do anything at all.
Prioritizing goes as follows (with moderations): Energy -> Food -> hygiene + bladder -> comfort -> social -> fun -> environment.

You can take care of energy and comfort in a go, if you let them have good beds and chairs. Take them to the toilet before giving them a shower/bath saves time and ups the hygiene more than doing it in the opposite direction. Let them do something social and fun at the same time. If you let sims watch cooking shows (fun and cooking points) they'll learn to make more filling meals, and won't go ballistic when they have to take care of the little ones while hungry. Putting the toddler in a high chair and then serving a group meal will also take care of hunger (yes, they actually serve the toddler, too). Otherwise, bottles are just as filling (and less work).

A toddler can manage without fun, but they can't go too long without food or socializing before the social worker starts sniffing around. A crying baby or toddler is not a good sign.

If the baby or toddler has a dirty diaper and low hygiene, give them a bath instead of first changing the diaper. That's also a two-in-one.

The most important toddler skill is potty-training - it's the only really useful skill. They can manage without the others, even if walking might be ncie to know for them as well.

And if you're worried about toddlers not getting enough sleep or needing food without available adults, put a pet pillow and a pet bowl on the floor. Not an ideal solution, but better than having the social worker stop by.

As for babies, if you have AL you can put them in the floor baby toy. Raises fun, and social if you let someone play with them. They can also sleep there.

For children, you can use a toy oven, so they can make a muffin if they're hungry. They can also eat snacks. Also prioritize getting homework done. Low grades are not good.

And if all else fails, Maxmotives is allowed to get you out of a tight spot (unless you're playing a challenge).

Actually, if you regularly change diapers instead of using the potty you never need to bathe toddlers as the diaper change fills up their hygiene bar.

Woah...but this is so unfair?!?
Not like it was the parent's fault or intention to let the kids alone...

That was the reason why I was pissed off. It wasn't his fault that the kids were left home alone for so long, and its not like you can call a nanny when you get abducted by aliens. That is one of the reasons why I found and started using BoilingOil's Pets and Kids Unattended mod. It isn't such a big deal with the mod if a child is left without an adult for several hours, and also so I could get rid of the nanny.

Children can call for nannys, or at least they could in the base game. I'm not sure if later expansions got rid of this or not. (Only just worked this out yesterday so maybe it's just my game is glitched?)
If a sim gets abducted, just get a child to call the nanny and it should be fine.

Children can call for the nanny as I just did so playing the orphan challenge. I have all EP's and Sp's. I guess if you are a single parent household with no teenagers either don't look through the telescope or call a nanny just before you start.

I learn my lesson about the darn "Social Worker" years ago, when I first started playing and still trying to learn the Sims game my first set of twins was taking away.
Only because the lazy and slow moving nanny was late getting to the house. After that I would make an elder in CAS and place her in the Sims home.
Later I started using a "Mod" to stop the Social Worker dead in her track.

•BO - Kids & Pets Unattended and •BO - Need Freak: http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=7875.0

Makes for happy Simming.

I only had trouble with the social worker once. I had twins, took them outside to play in the snow, then brought them in before they got too cold. Put them to sleep, thought that'd be the last of it but I kept getting messages that they were cold. I could not understand why. I bought a heater, put it in their room but the messages kept coming still. That's when I noticed that there was snow or something in the room....I put up all the walls and that's when I realized that there was no roof in that room X_X I had been remodelling the place to make room for the kids and I forgot to put a roof on it! It happened again recently. These two Sims were going to bed and waking up every hour, with heatstrokes. I put up a fan and everything but still nothing. Theeen I realised that I forgot the darn roof again!

Glad to know some of the hardcore sim playing fans out there every time I watched my friends play the sims on my computer they kept on speeding the time and you should only speed the time if your sims are either sleeping or skill building or homework fast-forward through the boring animations and enjoy the game by taking your time good one Joann and Simmer and simmer you use almost the exact same strategy I use for my sims but i never thought of the toddler's hygiene bar i always used to change the diaper and it automatically make the hygiene go up and if you use the baby changing station you never have to give the toddler a bath as long as they have a dirty diaper. and use the changing station the bladder and the hygiene will fill up all the way

without the changing station when your sim changes the toddler the hygene fills up halfway so consider this too SImmer and Joann and yes Bigsimfan i forgot that I have the option for the kid to call the nanny before and I have all expansions I disagreed because it is not a glitch in your game mine had done it before too but i forgot to try it recently but I will try it soon thank you and you too Joann!

and loser why do you call yourself that anyway remember the roof next time i forget too many times I thought I was finished and nope in neighborhood screen and wondering why I can see in side my new house

I only suggested it was a glitch because it seems weird so many people don't use it and get their children taken away for having absent parents I've only recently noticed it.

The orphanage was the last time a social worker showed up for my kids. There's 14 kids in the Orphanage. I left the game running by itself with everyone green for exactly one minute, and when I got back to the computer the flipping social worker was there, abducting my kids. Thankfully only 6 of 14 were actual children and a quit sans saving fixed the problem, but I have no idea what happened between 11:40 and 11:41 or how it got dire enough to prompt the kids being taken away.

Needless to say I had some very mean thoughts toward the SoWo at that point in time.

Yes, if you starve one child the social worker will take all the children away. This is completely predictable and fair. Someone who allows a child to starve is not someone who should be in charge of children.

The first family I played in the game had twins. I didn't know how to play, knew nothing about aspiration rewards, and didn't know any cheats. I did, however, know that feeding children was probably a good thing.

A game has to have risks as well as rewards. The risks in Sims 2 are pretty negligible and the rewards are copious. If you don't want the risks, use cheats.

I eliminated the Social Worker by using a mod after ALL alien kids and toddlers in the Curious household got taken away only because I didn't know at that time how to cool down a kid, it's always summer in Strangetown and kids get heated up often and very easily there. I was so angry I went to search for a proper mod immediately. I had the Social Worker taking the kids away before, mostly due to them staying home alone for the couple of hours waiting for the parent(s) to return from work, but nothing had me so upset than to loose all alien kids the Curious brothers put so much effort in to produce and raise. I dislike the Social worker in Sims game

There's a reason I have a no social worker hack! I don't like how quickly a social worker shows up. No homework done? Social worker. Hungry kids just an hour too long? Social worker. No, I like it much better without a social worker.

I had a social worker take children from a woman who'd been abducted, which I thought was super-unfair, so I rage-quit without saving. Then I had a bunch taken when one got scared by a ghost. I was very annoyed by that, but was able to get someone else in the house to re-adopt them. And then they got ghost-scared and taken away again.

I send them inside and have them drink a few glasses of water.

I've got a mod that allows showers to be hot or cold.

That hot/cold shower mod can be a lifesaver, but getting a drink of water works, too.

The only time I've ever seen the social worker is when she drops off an adoptee. I had a few close calls during my experimental period, when I was expecting the baby to cry to be fed; but that's why I had an experimental period - to figure out a few basic strategies with sims I wasn't especially interested in. (I was surprised at how quickly I got interested in them, though.) I don't like to mod out things like the social worker because then what's my incentive to learn to play? Most hazards can be dealt with by proper resource management, and having played Sims1 so long I had a fair grasp of how that worked.

In my experience, giving a toddler a bath does not change the diaper, by the way. You still have to do that separately.

In my experience, also, only twins ever have a problem with underfeeding because everyone on the lot is so anxious to feed them. Similarly I never have to tell anyone to bathe a toddler. In fact, it's common for me to cancel these interactions, because a teen or parent with dangerously low motives will try to feed or bathe a child whom someone else has just finished feeding or bathing,

I'm fairly sure spontaneous combustion was a bug that was patched out. So if you're not seeing it, that's a good thing!