Features that Growing Together Adds to The Sims 4

The Sims 4: Growing Together is the thirteenth expansion pack for The Sims 4, released on March 16, 2023. It comes just a mere two days after the free update introducing a new stage of life, Infants. The expansion focuses heavily on family, adding new features and gameplay mechanics we have all been waiting for. The Sims 4 and its expansions are available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

New Town: San Sequoia

San Sequoia is a brand new world to The Sims 4 that is as beautiful as it is family-friendly. This picturesque bayfront town is full of outdoor open space for family gatherings and for children to play. Your Sims can explore three neighborhoods in San Sequoia: Anchorpoint Wharf, Gilbert Gardens, and a relaxed residential locale, Hopewell Hills, which has a slower pace that seamlessly mixes elements of modern and traditional craftsman-style homes. With the new town comes new activities for the whole family.

This coastal region has so much to choose from that your Sims will have the perfect family outing at the Urban Park where they can Power Walk in a group, learn to ride a bicycle, jog, or even hike on a nature path along the Gilbert Garden’s lake. Not only can your Sims’ family enjoy the views, they can play on the playground, watch a movie at the wharf’s refurbished theater, grab a bite to eat at the pier, go fishing with their grandparents, visit the library, or even splish and splash at Whalebert’s public splash pad play area.

With this new town also comes a new type of lot, the Recreation Center. The pre-made Recreation Center can be found in the Gilbert Gardens neighborhood. While this may sound similar to the Community Center lots added in the Eco Lifestyle expansion, the Recreation Center is a lot more flexible. This 64×64 lot Recreation Center includes an arts and crafts room, music room, study space, kitchen, fitness/workout area, indoor play area, and more! The outdoor play area also includes standard playground equipment such as monkey bars and the Starcruiser X jungle gym.

The True Infant Experience

While the infant update was added to the base game for free, the expansion adds to that experience. Growing Together introduces changing tables, bassinets, infant playmats, and infant carriers. Without the changing table, your poor Sims will leave the dirty diapers on the ground. And having a baby carrier gives your Sim somewhere to put the infant down.

And not only can your Sim now carry around their infants, they can even babyproof the house and set up playpens to keep the toddlers busy. Growing Together introduces baby gates and the (Safety) Zone Baby Fence in Build Mode. You can use this to build a playground for your little ones. Both Infants and Toddlers can be kept within the Baby Safety Zone. The (Safety) Zone Baby Fence even comes in 9 different color variants.

Players also now have new customization options for their Sims’ infants. They can create and modify infants in Create-A-Sim editor and have the opportunity to show off a range of clothing, accessories, and hairstyles, adopt an infant, age up from a newborn to an infant to a toddler, change an infant’s diaper, give the infant a nap, put the infant to sleep and more! Infants will also have the ability to express needs, emotions, and sentiments. Caring for an infant just got a lot more intense.

New Quirks: Infant and Toddler

On top of new items to take care of your Infant, the expansion also introduces new Infant and Toddler Quirks. There are 18 new Infant quirks and 18 new quirks for Toddlers as well. These change their behaviors like sleeping patterns, food preferences, social needs, and more. They may even have a Quirk where they are likely to pee while being fed.

Infants and Toddlers can only have three Quirks at a time, and they can not have conflicting Quirks. So if your Toddler has the Hates Wakeup Time Quirk, they can not also have the Loves Wakeup Time Quirk. But with three Quirks per infant and toddler, each child is bound to be unique!

New Infant Quirks

New Toddler Quirks

New Aspirations: Children

In the Growing Together expansion, children have four brand new aspirations: Slumber Party Animal, Mind & Body, Playtime Captain, and Creative Genius.

Sleepovers get a huge makeover in this expansion. Your Sims can host a Slumber Party with spooky stories and sleeping bags huddled together in the living room. This will help your little Sims develop both their creative and social skills. Sims who accomplish this aspiration will receive the Practice Host trait.

The Mind & Body aspiration focuses on building your Sims’ mental and motor skills through activities like playing in a jungle gym, experimenting with their new chemistry set, and learning to ride a bike. For the milestone of riding a bike, however, they will need an adult to help them complete it. Sims who achieve the Mind & Body aspiration will receive the Headstrong trait, which helps them remain in either a Focused or Confident mood for more extended periods

The Playtime Captain aspiration wants your little Sims to play with their friends. Whether it is riding bikes together or climbing a tree, the reward for developing your Sims’ your sim’s motor and social skills is the Pack Animal trait.

And finally, the Creative Genius aspiration is exactly as it sounds. It is all about increasing your Sims’ creative and mental skills through play and thought. Completing this aspiration does require them to have the Treehouse from this expansion. Your little Sim can accomplish this aspiration by playing in the Treehouse and spending the night in it, preferably not in winter if you have the Seasons expansion. The reward trait is the Idea Person trait.

New Family-Friendly Items

The Growing Together expansion adds over 190 new Build items including unique and interactive family-oriented items like suitcases, infant carriers, keepsake boxes, and treehouses. And not only do the kids now have treehouses, they can also have a Splash Pad, Bike, Sleeping Bag, Friendship Bracelets, and more. The expansion even adds family portraits.

Many of the new items have a usable feature. They include rocking chairs, changing tables, keepsake boxes, sleeping bags, splash pads, water jets, swings, a toddler slide, a treehouse, and an upright piano. There is also a game table, an infant playmat, and a bracelet-making kit.

The expansion even adds on to your typical items that make a family home including a sofa, chairs, bed, tiles, tables, bookshelves, and some new photoframes. It also includes two new potty chairs, a sink with cabinets, a bath and shower combination, and lastly, a public toilet that is most suitable for non-residential zones like parks.

The Build items category boasts three new styled rooms for various functions, including a new bathroom, a cozy living room, and a children’s bedroom with bunk beds. Most of the new bedding is new variations of bunk beds. The upper and bottom section bunk bed items are grouped together, but players can separate, rotate, replace, or combine them with other items.

The expansion pack includes a wide variety of new items in lighting, appliances, decor, kids, electronics, plumbing, activities and skills, surfaces, storage, and comfort items.

Growth in Milestones

Players will encounter Milestones through their Sims’s experiences and relationships. All Sims from the infant life stage to the elder life stage can accomplish Milestones. These will provide a way of showing their Sims’ current growth and the lifelong experiences that will continue to impact them as they age. These milestones can vary depending on what stage of life the Sim is in. And they also affect the Sim in different ways.

Some Milestones will give your Sim a short-term mood, others will unlock new interactions with other Sims, and some even give your Sim special items. For infants, these milestones revolve around learning how to do things for the first time. Infants will not be able to sit up in the highchairs until they have earned the Milestone on learning how to sit up. For older Sims, these milestones may look like overcoming a career obstacle, getting a new degree, having the family move in, and more.

Not all Milestones are positive, they mark all important life events both good and bad. This could be getting a divorce, getting let go from their job, or even a fire. Milestones affect infants the most because they will lead to them being able to do more things but they can still affect older Sims. For example, experiencing their first fire may cause them to be uncomfortable in the area where the fire started.

Infant Milestones

• Born
• Born at a Hospital
• Adopted
• Learned to Reach
• Learned to Grab
• Put Toe in Mouth
• Learned to Wave
• Learned to Clap
• Learned Pincer Grasp
• Lifted Head
• Rolled Over to Back
• Rolled Over to Tummy
• Learned to Creep
• Learned to Sit Up
• Pulled to Stand
• Learned to Dance
• Learned to Crawl
• First Smiled
• Learned to Coo
• Learned to Laugh
• Learned to Babble
• Learned to Blow Raspberry
• Said First Word
• Learned to Blow Kiss
• Learned Peek-a-Boo
• First Visitors
• First Bath
• First Bubble Bath
• First Baby Food
• First Finger Food
• Slept Through the Night
• First Diaper Blowout
• First Family Visit
• First Trip to Park
• First Vacation
• Peed on Caregiver

Toddler Milestones

• Art Appreciation
• Asked Why
• First Friend
• First Nightmare
• First Time Daycare
• Learned To Climb Stairs
• Learned To Dance
• Learned To Run
• Learned To Talk
• Learned To Walk
• Max Communication
• Max Imagination
• Max Movement
• Max Potty
• Max Thinking
• Played With Others
• Read First Book
• Studied Letters
• Studied Numbers
• Studied Shapes
• Threw Tantrum

Child Milestones

• Childhood Phase
• First Day of Grade School
• Learned to Ride a Bike
• Lost First Tooth
• Reached Top of After School Activity

Teen Milestones

• Began Puberty
• Dropped Out of High School
• Expelled from High School
• Graduated High School
• Prom Royalty

Adult/General Milestones

• Abducted By Aliens
• Adopted Pet
• Adopted Sim
• Beat Greg
• Became Mermaid
• Became Non Occult
• Became PlantSim
• Became Spellcaster
• Became Vampire
• Became Werewolf
• Best Friend
• Birthday
• Caught Cheating By Sim
• Caught Sim Cheating
• Defeated Mother Plant
• Died
• Earned Degree – Art History
• Earned Degree – Biology
• Earned Degree – Communications
• Earned Degree – Computer Science
• Earned Degree – Culinary Arts
• Earned Degree – Drama
• Earned Degree – Economics
• Earned Degree – Fine Art
• Earned Degree – History
• Earned Degree – Language Literature
• Earned Degree – Physics
• Earned Degree – Psychology
• Earned Degree – Villainy
• Eaten By Cowplant
• Ended Romantic Relationship
• Enemy
• Engaged
• Engagement Rejected
• Fell In Love
• First Bladder Fail
• First Energy Fail
• First Fight
• First Fire
• First Promotion
• First Time Burning Out
• First Time Possessed
• First Woohoo
• Forgotten Grotto
• Got Fired
• Got Job
• Got Laid Off
• Had Affair
• Had Sim
• Hermit
• Mid Life Crisis – Adventure
• Mid Life Crisis – Create
• Mid Life Crisis – Relationship
• Mid Life Crisis – Success
• Married
• Max Star Celebrity
• Mount Komorebi
• Omiscan Temple
• Quit Job
• Reached Top Of Career
• Reputation Atrocious
• Reputation Pristine
• Resurrected
• Resurrected By Sim
• Resurrected Sim
• Saved From Death
• Self Discovery
• Significant Other
• Sixam
• Smacked By Agnes
• Struck By Lightning
• Survived Haunted House
• Sylvan Glade
• Werewolf Pack Leader A
• Werewolf Pack Leader B
• Widowed
• Won Lottery
• Won Village Fair

Elder Milestones

• Retired

Miscellaneous New Features

New Family Dynamics

In the base game, it is made clear that family members treat each other how they would treat non-family Sims, minus any romantic actions. To fix this, Growing Together adds new depth to family interactions. Familial relationships will now seem deeper and more meaningful. These new dynamics can be set in the Create-a-Sim screen. And this doesn’t just affect the nuclear family, dynamics can be set for extended family like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and others. Maybe father and daughter are jokesters together, aunt and nephew are sworn enemies, or maybe siblings are more competitive with each other.

House Guests

The Growing Together expansion adds a new Stay Over feature. Finally, Sims visiting each other’s houses can have more meaning.

Players can decide how many Sims they want to attend the Stay Over, how many days the Stay Over visit will last, and what time they would like the Sims to arrive. And don’t forget the Sim coming to stay over needs a place to sleep, whether it is a guest room or just a bed in a random part of the house. The guests can be asked to help around the home or just relax and hang out.

New Events

On top of everything else Growing Together has to offer, it also brings new Social Events. The three new events introduced are:

• Family Reunion
• Baby Shower
• Slumber Party

The Family Reunion event will cost your Sims 200 Simoleons. Take photographs, share a meal, tell stories, and have fun with your Sims’ whole extended family. A successful family reunion will even reward you with various photo collage frames to remember the special occasion.

Baby Shower is a much-anticipated event for Sims to finally be able to celebrate their growing family. Baby Showers can be held not only for pregnant Sims but also when choosing to adopt. A successful Baby Shower will reward the player with a new bassinet.

And finally, the Slumber Party is perfect for children to work on their social skills. Have your Sims stay up late, eat snacks, tell scary stories, and more! Successfully completing a Slumber Party not only affects children’s aspirations, but players also unlock toddler sleeping bags.