Puberty, school, and your first real job; Your adolescence is such a vital and formative part of growing up and gaining life experience, and Paralives does include three stages to progress through to reach adulthood and prepare for “the real world”. Children, Preteens, and Teens are the three stages between toddlerhood and young adulthood, and they include the trials and tribulations of school, homework, finding yourself and your personality, and even growth spurts!

💡 We have more tips on younger life stages. See our guide on Pregnancy, Babies and Toddlers!

HOPSCOTCH AND HOMEWORK: Paralives Children, Preteens, and Teens Guide!

Children

Children are the youngest of these adolescent stages, just after toddlerhood. This is where you’ll start to see more of their adult features come through, looking less “generic” than babies and toddlers. They will gain access to the full available wardrobe for Paras, and will have two personality points. Paras gain one personality point per age stage, plus extras if they have personality level ups during this period.

Preteens

The inbetween stage is Preteens, looking closer to teens but still quite on the short side with some awkward proportions. They still attend elementary school like children do, and they still do not have access to part-time jobs or electives like teens do. This is also the shortest life stage of the three, intended to be a transitionary period rather than a fully fleshed out stage. For example, on Normal lifespan, the child stage is 11 days, the preteen stage is 7 days, and the teen stage is 13 days.

Teens

Teens begin to get more variety and have more autonomy than their younger counterparts. They will look the closest to adulthood but can still have loads of variety between teens, especially when you compare those in the early stages of this period versus the end stage, since the dynamic height changes and growth spurts can really differentiate older teens and younger teens.

Teens can get hired in part-time jobs that they will still be in once they leave school, unless you choose for them to quit. They cannot drop out, but they can take up to 2-3 jobs like adults do, so long as the schedules do not conflict with school.

Teens also have electives, rather than solely mandatory classes like children and preteens do. These electives will appear with upgrade points at random, along with other perk cards and grade changes.

Growth Spurts

Since Paras do have height differences and carry genetics for their height, they will hit growth spurts through the children, preteens, and teens stages. Most stages have 2 growth spurts that will slowly progress the Paras to their full height at that stage, with the teen stage bringing them to their adult height. For example, these three kids are all siblings and you can see the comparisons between their existing heights and the changes with each of their growth spurts.

School

School largely dictates the success of your young Paras as it takes up so much of their day and general time in this life stage. They will begin with a set few classes as a child, gaining and losing grades for each glass individually and having an overall grade. As they progress, they will get upgrade points like adults do for careers, homework, etc. Once they hit the teen stage, they will also be able to have part-time jobs outside of school as long as the schedule does not conflict with school. Unlike adult stages, they cannot leave the student occupation for work and must balance the two.

After leaving school for the day, Paras have a chance of getting a homework assignment for one of their classes. These homework assignments are important for progress and they typically must be completed within two days. To complete them, click on a computer and click Do Homework… and choose the class in question. The option will not appear if a Para does not have homework. Once they’ve completed the assignment, they will bump up a letter grade in said class.

When you have a Para in the teens stage, their schedule will adjust to start earlier and end later, and they will instead attend high school. When they get upgrade points for high school, they can still use them for perk cards and to level up their grades for their mandatory classes, but they can also upgrade to include new classes that help with leveling other skills, titled Electives. Some examples include electives for Art, Cooking, Programming, Techlabs, and Dance, though there are others!

While it can also happen to adult Paras, a downside of school for all ages is the possibility of catching a virus. Paras will take a fairly severe mood hit from being sick, and it can quickly be cured by visiting one of the Health Centers around town and choosing to Seek Care. If it is successful, you will get a new pop up letting you know the Para has been cured.

Paralives will be releasing on steam TOMORROW, May 25th, 2026. It will retail for $39.99 USD with a 10% launch discount. We will continue to post information and guides surrounding Paralives and its features, so make sure to keep an eye on The Sims Community and our countdown to Paralives Early Access release!