Objective

You must raise a Sim from a baby to a young adult and max out all five character values without ever taking control of the child. It is solely the responsibility of the parents to guide the child’s character values. The parents will need to raise the Parenting skill in order to influence their child to perform character-building actions and scold/punish them appropriately for doing things that lower character values.

Getting Started

• Create two young adult Sims in CAS. The gender customization and occult type of these Sims do not matter. These Sims can have any appearance, walk style, voice, traits, and aspirations you want. You may choose to make these Sims married in CAS or not, it’s entirely up to you. You may use CC on your Sims. You may use Sims from the Gallery as long as they are both young adults.
• If Cats & Dogs is installed, you can add pets to the household, but you may want to limit it to one or two. Your Sims should be primarily focused on their child during the challenge.
• Move your household into any lot in any world that they can afford. These can be premade Maxis homes, a house you built yourself, or a house downloaded from the Gallery as long as your Sims can afford it with their starting funds.
• Once your household is moved in and set up the way you like, you must add a baby to the household either through pregnancy or adoption. The gender of the baby does not matter. Babies cannot gain character values, but the time spent caring for the baby will help your parent Sims get a head start on their Parenting skill. If you opt to add a child to the home through pregnancy, reading Parenting books during the pregnancy will give your parent Sims additional time to build the Parenting skill.

Challenge Rules

Game Settings and Third Party Content

• Lifespans must be set to Normal with aging turned on for your active household.
• Mods that give you an unfair advantage over other players are not allowed. This is left up to your own judgment, but to give an example, a mod that adds snow or fall colours to your game is fine because it’s a cosmetic change that does not affect gameplay. A mod that gives all beds max energy gain or any other mod that makes it easier to manage your Sims’ emotions and motives is not allowed because these mods make the game easier for you. Mods that give you more money in any way, shape, or form are not allowed, either.
• CC that does not affect gameplay is allowed.

Cheats and Game Restarts

• NO CHEATING! Unless otherwise stated in this section, all cheats are strictly prohibited. No money cheats. No motive cheats. No emotion cheats. No character value cheats. No cheats that affect school or career performance in any way. No. Cheating. Period.
• The bb.moveobjects on cheat may be used for creative building purposes.
• The resetsim cheat may be used ONLY when your Sim is stuck or otherwise glitched in a manner which makes you unable to control them. You cannot use it whenever your Sim does something you don’t like.
• No restarting the game to bypass unfortunate events. Your Sim died in a fire while cooking? Lost their job? Got eaten by a cowplant? Oh well, too bad. Roll with the punches and continue.
• In the case of glitches or other technical issues that cause you to lose significant progress, you may use whatever cheats and mods necessary to get back to where you were before you lost your data.

Birthdays and Aging

• Your Sims’ baby cannot be aged up until you get a notification saying that today is their birthday.
• No Sims in your household can be aged up until it is their birthday.
• Pets cannot be fed age up or age down treats. They must be allowed to age naturally just like your Sims.
• You cannot resurrect dead Sims or pets. You cannot invite ghosts into the household. Once a Sim or a pet is gone, they’re gone.
• You must randomise the traits and aspirations of the child as they grow up. I recommend Pinstar’s Random Trait Generator because the child has a chance of inheriting the traits of their parents, but createarandomsim.com is fine to use as well.

Live Mode

• Your parent Sims can make money however you choose in order to provide for their child. They can stay at home and make money from one of the skills or they can get a job from the phone. You may delegate child raising duties as you wish. One Sim can stay home to care for the child while the other Sim works or they can both work or both stay home. The parenting dynamic is up to you.
• You may NEVER control the child. The child must rely solely on their parents to nurture their character values and needs. You may click on the child to look at their information but you can never assign any tasks to the child or cancel any of their actions. If you want the child to do something, you must influence them to do it through a parent.
• Your Sims are free to do whatever you want with their lives as long as you are not controlling the child. Other than raising the child’s character values without controlling the child, the rest of the challenge is very open-ended.

Other Add-On Packs

• You may use any features and objects that come with any other add-on packs you have installed. I expect this rule to remain the same for all future packs but if it changes, it will be clarified in this section.
• Your child can do any activity from any add-on pack that affects character values as long as you are not directing them to do these activities. For example, they can take care of pets (Cats & Dogs) and do laundry (Laundry Day Stuff) to raise the Responsibility value, but only if it’s done autonomously or if they’ve been asked to do it by a parent.

NPCs

• You may hire any NPCs your Sims may want or need, including the nanny and butler (from Vintage Glamour).

Completing the Challenge

• The challenge ends as soon as the baby grows into a young adult.
• If you played using the point system, refer to the points section to see how well your parent Sims did with raising their child. Every positive character value trait adds points while every negative character value trait deducts points. There are other ways to gain or lose points as well.
• If you did not play using a point system, just raising a child from a baby to a young adult without any negative character value traits is technically a win, but you did well if the child has grown up with at least 3 positive character value traits.
• You fail the challenge if your child dies before their young adult birthday or if they are taken away by social services.
• You fail the challenge if you controlled the child even once during the challenge, even accidentally.
• You fail the challenge if the child grows up with all five negative character value traits.

Points System

If tracking points feels tedious to you, you do not have to play with the points system at all. It’s just for hardcore players who like to achieve a perfect score in their games. Playing for points is completely optional. Disregard the points entirely if that makes the challenge more fun for you.

TOTAL: 100 points

10 points for every positive character value trait gained at young adulthood
* 10 points for gaining the Top-Notch Toddler trait at childhood
* 5 points for gaining the Happy Toddler trait at childhood
1 point for each childhood aspiration completed
1 point for each childhood skill maxed out
10 points for finishing elementary school with an A grade
10 points for finishing high school with an A grade
5 points for each parent that maxes out the Parenting skill
1 point for each parent that is Good Friends or BFFs with their child at young adulthood

-10 points for every negative character value trait gained at young adulthood
-10 points for a D or lower grade in elementary school
-10 points for a D or lower grade in high school
-1 point for each parent that gains a negative relationship title with their child at young adulthood
-1 point for every tantrum/emotional outburst
-1 point every time the child resists discipline or influence
-5 points every time you get a warning about your child being taken away

* These points do not stack. You do not get 15 points if you got the Top-Notch Toddler trait. It’s one or the other.

Handicaps

Handicaps are disadvantages that make the challenge harder. You can play with all of these handicaps, only some of them, or none at all. Playing with a handicap gives you point boosts, however, so there is a reward for making things harder on yourself. Depending on how well you play the challenge with these handicaps, it’s possible to finish with more than 100 points.

Play with a single parent household (15 points)
Play with more than one child that you do not control (*2 points per extra child)
Play without either parent working in a traditional career (5 points)
Play with pets (2 points per pet)
Play without using satisfaction rewards (5 points)

* Any extra children only provide the 2-point handicap boost. They cannot earn points for the rest of the challenge but must remain uncontrollable, just like your main child.