If you’re a gameplay enthusiast or storyteller who loves creating lots of drama with your Sims, you should check out the WooHoo Wellness and Pregnancy Overhaul mod by Lumpinou! This mod has been around for a while but receives monthly updates with new features. The mod is made up of multiple modules you can install separately so it’s fully customisable to suit your own preferences. Install features you want and discard the ones you don’t; it’s up to you!
The WooHoo Wellness and Pregnancy Overhaul mod is a massive game overhaul that completely changes the way relationships, pregnancy, and family dynamics work in the game. Sims will have realistic and varied reactions to things like pregnancy, cheating, breakups, and more. Some Sims may be excited about a new baby while others may be furious, upset, or have mixed feelings about the situation. Those feelings will inform the way those Sims interact with both each other and the situation. It would take us quite a while to break down every single feature of this mod. It affects the game in very intricate and nuanced ways but the latest module which is currently being released in small batches really caught our attention!
The module, called Break Up, Make Up, and Everything In Between, + Co-parenting, adds more depth to the process of breaking up in the game. Normally, married Sims always have the Divorce option available under the Mean social category. Choosing that option will instantly make the Sims divorced and any children who happen to witness this interaction between their parents will feel sad about their parents breaking up for a while. That’s basically it. With this module, married Sims can separate for a period of time before either deciding to go ahead with a divorce or get back together.
The video embedded below shows this process in more detail but to summarise, married Sims can request a separation from their spouse. This puts both Sims into the Separated relationship status. While in the Separated status, the Sims have new interactions available to them with their estranged spouse. They can attempt to repair the relationship by promising to change, apologising for their mistakes, and more. They can also call or text their estranged spouse from their temporary living arrangements following the separation. They can also tell other Sims about their separation and those Sims will respond with their opinion on the situation.
Getting back together isn’t as easy as saying you’re sorry, though! While separated, Sims can gauge how ready the other Sim is to reconcile. Trying to reconcile too soon while the reconciliation odds are low is likely to fail and hurt the relationship more. It’s going to take consistent effort on your part to repair the damaged relationship. Even if the couple decides to reconcile after the separation, there’s a chance the estranged partner may still refuse to move back in at first if they feel it’s too soon to be living together again.
If the Separated couple has children together, the parents can explain the situation to their kids. The children can have a variety of reactions to the separation depending on how close they are with the parents.
There are also new divorce and custody battle dynamics that will be getting added to this module in phases over the next month or so. Some of the divorce and custody features are not fully implemented yet but will be coming to the mod soon, so keep an eye on Lumpinou’s website for more information. For now, here’s an overview of those upcoming features summarised from Lumpinou’s website.
If a couple decides to permanently divorce following a separation, the Sim initiating the divorce will be able to select a reason for why they want a divorce. Some of the reasons seen in the example picture on Lumpinou’s website are This Love Is Dead, Loving Another, Different Gender Orientation, Can’t Provide Investment, A WooHoo Life? Where?, Cheater!, and A Ghost of a Partner.
If the couple getting divorced have children together, one Sim can demand custody of the children. The other partner may agree to the demand or fight them on it. If the other partner chooses to fight for custody of the kids, this will initiate court proceedings. In the case of amicable breakups, Sims can also amicably agree to share custody of the children.
If the Sims cannot amicably agree on custody arrangements for the kids, they will have to fight each other in court for custody. Custody arrangements are determined by the court based on various factors like employment and housing but Sims can also help their chances of winning custody of the kids by hiring a more expensive divorce lawyer. The more expensive the lawyer, the better the odds of your Sim getting what they want. Lumpinou also hints on the website that for evil and mean Sims, they have some not-so-honourable methods available to them to get the other parent out of the picture…
After custody has been decided, kids can visit the other parent and may have good or bad reactions to their visits depending on several factors. Teens are more likely to be annoyed by having to go visit the other parent than children are. Divorced Sims with children will have to learn how to navigate co-parenting their children together regardless of whatever issues they have with each other. As you might imagine, co-parenting can go smoothly or not-so-smoothly depending on how bad the breakup was and how the parents choose to interact with each other.
While your Sim’s child is staying with their other parent, they may be contacted by the other parent with various situations regarding their kids. They could be phone calls just giving them updates and information about their child or your Sim may have to make some kind of decision. Some example situations Lumpinou describes on the website are the other parent calling them about a school trip for their child and wanting to know if your Sim can pitch in to cover the field trip cost. There is also a situation in which the other parent may have to stay late at work and wants to know if your Sim can take the kids for them that day.
Divorced parents will also need to pay child support for any kids not in their custody. They may be receptive to paying child support or be angry about it. For example, the Sim might feel like the other parent is misusing the child support funds and therefore they’re reluctant to send them any more money.
There’s a few other tidbits of information that Lumpinou goes over on the website but we hope this article has given you a pretty good rundown of what to expect when this module has had all features fully implemented in the coming months! I know I’m excited to play with everything discussed here myself in my own game! Keep in mind all of these features are still in development and may change depending on Lumpinou’s schedule!