Become the Best Parent Ever with the Better Babies and Toddlers Mod

Some sims are just meant to be parents! All they want out of life is a happy, healthy, growing family and that’s what brings them fulfillment. Level up the parenting experience for those sims with the Better Babies and Toddlers mod!

Like people, sims have a range of things that motivate them in life and for some, parenthood is it. These are the sims who line their walls with school pictures, and participate in all the neighborhood events and bake sales. The parents with license plates like LUVMYKID and “My Child is an Honor Student” bumper stickers. The parents who make everybody matching tee shirts for the family vacation photos. They can regale you for hours with stories of their children, whether you want to hear them or not!

Unfortunately, Babies and Toddlers have historically gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to gameplay in The Sims 4, with infants only becoming a life stage earlier this year.

If you are a player that is tired of this Infant and Toddler erasure, you’re going to love the wonderful mod we’ve featured today. The Better Babies and Toddlers Mod by Caradriel works by adding a range of new interactions that can be exchanged between parent sims and other adults, or with their littlest family members—certain interactions can even give your sims skill gains! Let’s learn all about the mod and how it will greatly enhance the parenting experience for you and your sims.

Getting Started with the Better Babies and Toddlers Mod

Before you can use this mod, there are 2 things you’re going to need first:

1. The Sims 4 Parenthood Game Pack – Game Packs are often included in EA sales so you can score this one for pretty cheap, at the time of this writing it’s on sale for $13.99 USD
2. Lumpinou’s Mood Pack Mod which is available for free on Patreon

You can check out more details about the Mood Pack Mod here.

Using the Better Babies and Toddlers Mod

Once you’ve downloaded the Better Babies and Toddlers Mod along with meeting the aforementioned requirements, you’re ready to play with this new game mod.

To get started you need to be playing with a sim who has a Baby or Toddler, then select another sim and navigate to the menu Better Babies → Talk About Babies. This will give your sim a custom trait called “better babies and toddlers” which opens them up to using new interactions with and about their young children. Sims won’t get access to the full mod menu until they have a little one, so don’t think the mod is broken if you try enabling it on a sim without young children. Once your sim has the new trait, you can access a slew of new content in regards to parenthood.

More on SNOOTYSIMS: Parenting mods for realistic gameplay: adoption, chores, therapy and more!

Interactions with Other Adults

Your excited new parents have a variety of ways they can interact with other adults to share the joys and perils of parenthood. Some of these interactions include things like “Complain About the Baby Teething,” “Share Self-Care Tips as a New Parent,” and if it’s winter time, “Discuss About the First Christmas.” It’s a great way for young parents to connect with other adults, seek advice, or just let off some steam from the constant work of being on-call for their little ones.

If they have Toddlers, your parents can additionally “Ask for Meal Ideas” and “Debate Powdered vs Fresh Milk” with other adults. These interactions will grant moodlets to your sim (some of which come from the Mood Pack Mod). It’s the perfect way to pass the time with other parents during a Baby Shower or Toddler Play Date, and adds new conversation topics for those sims whose whole identity is being a parent.

Interactions with Babies

When your sim interacts with their newborn babies via bassinette, the vanilla game interactions will now grant special moodlets that range from happy and energetic to inspired and even bored. There are a lot of possible moodlets available, making the interactions with these Baby “objects” much more enriching and meaningful than the vanilla game behaviors. It makes them feel more like actual babies and less like props!

Interactions with Toddlers

Although one of the things you can teach to your Toddlers in the vanilla game is how to speak, a major milestone moment every good parent remembers is the first time their kiddo said “mommy” or “daddy” (or whatever the equivalent is for your family). The Better Babies and Toddlers Mod now allows sims to ask their Toddlers to say these words, and experience the euphoric feeling of hearing their children calling out to them for the very first time. Parents will get a Happy moodlet from this momentous occasion as well!

Parents can also “Try to Teach New Word” to their Toddlers to expand their vocabulary further, which may increase the Toddler’s skill if the action is successful. Sims can even share these wins and fails with other sims, keeping them in the loop on the little one’s progress!

Interactions with Computers

A new interaction available by clicking on a computer is “Search for New Veggies Recipes,” which will increase your sim’s Cooking Skill. There’s also the option to “Read Parents Magazine” which, to no surprise, will increase the Parenting Skill. This way your sims can work on being star parents even when their kids are asleep, visiting with relatives, playing quietly, or otherwise not interacting with their star parent at the time.

Future Plans for the Mod

Caradriel has more ambitious plans for Better Babies and Toddlers that we’ll hopefully see one day in the future, though the mod hasn’t been updated since 2021:

• Parents Magazine – the plan is to make this into a subscription magazine that will be delivered to your sim’s home regularly
  • when a baby is born the plan is to have Baby Gift delivered in celebration of the little one’s arrival
• More Interactions with Toddlers – to teach them an even wider variety of skills
• New Conversations – new things for your Toddlers to talk about to their parents and maybe even each other

Known Mod Conflicts

The Better Babies and Toddlers mod is made to be compatible with Lumpinou’s Woohoo Wellness Mod, however it will conflict with any other mod(s) that effect Bassinette interactions. Lumpinou’s mod will also prevent sims with an unwanted pregnancy from receiving the same positive moodlets from the Better Babies and Toddlers Mod—a thoughtful and sensible way to intigrate the two mods together.

Closing Thoughts

Unless your sim has the “Hates Children” trait, they likely enjoy interacting with the little ones in their family. Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles are all wonderful family members to have in a child’s life, each filling different roles but loving their family kiddos just the same. The Better Babies and Toddlers Mod enriches that entire experience, making children feel even more part of the family and giving parents greater attention in gameplay. If you have a sim with a Family Aspiration, this will be their favorite new mod!

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