Nannies can be kinda useless

[Jehane]

My Sims currently have three infants so I decided to hire a nanny; for some reason, when I returned from tending to the second household, there are now two nannies which is just fine by me. It makes sense with three infants, too.

However, at least one parent has to stay at home (and use up vacation days) because otherwise, the nannies tend to neglect the infants. Sometimes they just stand around, being completely useless, and they have this annoying habit of putting the kids on the ground instead of into their beds.

I found what really works best to make them do their job is to select one of the kids to see why they're unhappy, then click on "solve automatically" for whatever is wrong so the nannies do their job. It doesn't work all the time, but mostly, it's a good solution.

I like the idea of having nannies that stay with the household until you fire them or no longer need them, but sometimes they are so useless it's annoying. I guess all of that is linked to autonomy, and it's really the only thing about having autonomy on that annoys the heck out of me because other than that, autonomy can have some really funny effects.

[The Living Darkness]

I tend to find Nannies quite useful. Its true that sometimes they can have their issues but I have many times just ignored newborns, infants and toddlers with a nanny around. Though if there is more than one young sim on the lot I cant really just expect the nanny AI to handle it. If the nanny is behaving poorly I may manage the nanny through the child sim. Ill leave the parents or teens doing what they are doing and quickly select the young sim, see what its missing then have the young sim select the nanny as ask for help feeding or bathing or sleep or what not. it works well, the nanny will always stop what they are doing and help the child.

Side note, I once tried using LittleMsSams live in mod with a nanny.......and she starved to death......I guess she was too concerned about the child to ever take the time to eat...... I dont use live in services often but that was the first time one ever died on me.

[Jehane]

Selecting the baby Sim and having it ask for help is pretty much the only thing that works with any nanny. The whole nanny thing seems a bit bugged, too, because at one point, I had four of them showing up at once, and right now, there is supposed to be a second one, though she is nowhere to be found.

Also, having more than one infant seems to be an issue, too, because the kids have started glitching in and out of focus (when I double-click on one, the game sometimes takes me to an empty road), and the toddler managed to walk through a wall and is now holed up in there, unable to go to bed.

I can't remember re-starting the game so often without saving because of glitches like that, and I kinda suspect it's connected to having so many infants resp. eight Sims living on one lot, with at least one nanny around 24/7 and a caretaker stopping by every day. Maybe it's just too much for the game to handle; the lot is huge, too - Hound's Head in Brindleton Bay.

[James3157]

I mentioned it elsewhere recently (although it is shorter and less detailed on the other one), but maybe butlers are more useful than nannies. Just need to pay attention if a butler tries to steal anything and especially if the Butler has that kleptomaniac trait. Butlers do however require Vintage Glamour dlc meaning they are not basegame and hopefully the butlers are not bugged like the nannies are meaning you can only have "one butler" at a time instead of two, three, or four of them at a time even after firing; although, a butler does however need a bed for sleeping. Infants are also the hardest lifestage to take care of as well especially if you own Growing Together expansion pack due to the fact that toddlers are able to do some things that infants cannot do.

[Xenon The Noble]

Even in Sims 3, sometimes you hire a sim and they don't do the job. I think you're supposed to fire the ones that don't.
Which in Sims 4 may be all of them.

[Jehane]

It seems to work now - ever since one of the infants aged up to toddler, the nannies do their job, both of them. I gave the toddler the independent trait, too, so the nannies (and parents) have to watch him constantly. The other two infants are supposed to age up by the end of the next Sim week.

I was thinking about hiring a butler, too, but if he requires a bed to sleep, that's out of the question - the house is huge, but not <i>that</i> huge, at least not with seven Sims and a dog living there 😁

The only reason why my Sims have so many kids is because I wasn't aware of what harmless conversations with other Sims can trigger. The first three kids were intentional - the oldest is a teenager, the second is in elementary school. When the third one was only an infant, I switched to my second household. One of the Sims living there happened to be pregnant, too, and chatted to the Sim mom from the first household about offspring. I figured she'd just share her excitement about being a mom herself.

However, the other Sim, she with three kids, said something like "Oooh, what a great idea, I'm gonna talk to my husband!" Next time the two Sims met - about a day or so later -, Mrs Sim from Household 1 was pregnant. I wasn't happy about that, but figured that she and her husband could handle an additional infant. And then she gave birth to twins 😂

If the last save hadn't been about an hour or two ago, I would've reloaded to prevent that because handling so many Sims is more stressful than I thought. Fun, but a bit stressful, and I'm never gonna let that happen again 😁

[James3157]

Originally posted by Jehane:

It seems to work now - ever since one of the infants aged up to toddler, the nannies do their job, both of them. I gave the toddler the independent trait, too, so the nannies (and parents) have to watch him constantly. The other two infants are supposed to age up by the end of the next Sim week.

I was thinking about hiring a butler, too, but if he requires a bed to sleep, that's out of the question - the house is huge, but not <i>that</i> huge, at least not with seven Sims and a dog living there 😁

The only reason why my Sims have so many kids is because I wasn't aware of what harmless conversations with other Sims can trigger. The first three kids were intentional - the oldest is a teenager, the second is in elementary school. When the third one was only an infant, I switched to my second household. One of the Sims living there happened to be pregnant, too, and chatted to the Sim mom from the first household about offspring. I figured she'd just share her excitement about being a mom herself.

However, the other Sim, she with three kids, said something like "Oooh, what a great idea, I'm gonna talk to my husband!" Next time the two Sims met - about a day or so later -, Mrs Sim from Household 1 was pregnant. I wasn't happy about that, but figured that she and her husband could handle an additional infant. And then she gave birth to twins 😂

If the last save hadn't been about an hour or two ago, I would've reloaded to prevent that because handling so many Sims is more stressful than I thought. Fun, but a bit stressful, and I'm never gonna let that happen again 😁

A household of 7-8 adult sims (such as the parents for example being elders while their children and perhaps in laws are all adult/young adult) is definitely less stressful than a household with multiple infant/toddler sims.

[GamerSpecial]

Bait

[James3157]

Originally posted by GamerSpecial:

Bait

You have said this in multiple threads recently.

[Jehane]

Originally posted by James3157:

A household of 7-8 adult sims (such as the parents for example being elders while their children and perhaps in laws are all adult/young adult) is definitely less stressful than a household with multiple infant/toddler sims.

Oh, definitely, but it's been fun. Kinda 😁Now all infants have aged up to toddlers so I decided to leave the household alone for a while and take the teen to university 😁