The Sims 2 Pt. 4

Still in The Sims 2 neighborhood Pleasantview, let's move on to the Broke family. This family also consists of a single parent, as Brandi's husband Skip died very recently. She is left to raise her sons teenage rebel Dustin and toddler Beau on her own, not to mention we soon find out she's pregnant.

I remember the first time I played this family. I couldn't understand why Brandi's needs dropped so quickly. She was fine one moment, then suddenly she needed everything at once! When her stomach began to expand, I actually just thought she was gaining weight in general. And when she waddled, I remember thinking that she weirdly was acting like she was pregnant. (Please keep in mind this is back when I first began this computer game, and I had as yet not played any expecting mothers. Besides, I had not had her try for a baby with anyone.) Finally when she had her new son and went back to normal, I understood. I must admit, I did not try to tackle the nightmare of getting her stats back to normal while simultaneously raising a newborn and a toddler; I worked on solving this problem another way that I will tell you later.

But in the meantime, while I'm being confused about Brandi's big belly, I'm also trying to help out Dustin and Beau. Beau, to be honest, I just took care of as a side project, unfortunately. He was the least messed-up member of the family, so I simply put him in and out of his crib when necessary and kept him occupied with his musical toy. Anytime I thought Brandi and/or Dustin had time and energy to spare, I had them teach him the toddler skills he needed.

Moving on to Dustin, I worked to change him to a responsible man of the house. You may consider the method I used cheating, but I used the Reno-Yu-Senso Orb, or whatever it's called, to change his aspiration to family so that his lifetime want would no longer be to enter the criminal field. He started doing his homework, with Brandi's help the first time, and got a job. He rejected Angela's offer to sneak out, which I later found out that he would have been caught by the police had he gone. But I did try to keep his relationship with his girlfriend up. Dustin did pretty great for a while, but a teenager's income really wasn't enough.

So moving on to my blanket solution. I stopped playing the Broke family, and I created another family: a single father with his teenage daughter. Once the father was prosperous enough, I built a large new house and had the two move in. He and Brandi, fortunately, had good chemistry with one another, so it was relatively simple to have them fall in love. He proposed, Brandi and her family moved in, her stats were normal, and Dustin had the huge weight of sole responsibility removed. Now I had two teens and two adults to take care of Brandi's two young'uns and the new baby I decided she would have with her new husband. Everybody's happy, yay!

Wow, long post. But now I'm done ranting about this family, so I'll end it here. Until tomorrow, everyone!