The Sims 4: Parenthood is a popular DLC for The Sims 4, released in 2017 and developed by Maxis. The DLC brings the nuances of parenthood to the legendary life-simulator. It is considered a game pack, meaning it features more content than a stuff pack, but less than a fully-fledged expansion pack. Upon its release, it was exclusive to PC but made its way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One just over a year later. Much of the DLC for The Sims 4 has come in for criticism over the years. However, Parenthood remains popular with the fanbase, with most players feeling it’s a meaningful addition to the game.
The Sims 4: Parenthood Premise
There are no prizes for guessing what you’ll be doing in The Sims 4: Parenthood. This game pack introduces character values for the toddler, children, and teen phases, making them seem more realistic with actual needs and desires. This shapes the person they become, making this phase of their lives seem all the more important in-game.
The DLC brings a whole host of new family activities into The Sims 4. This includes helping your children with numerous school projects or showing them how to express creativity through building blocks. It’s a rewarding process that makes you feel essential to the parenting and growing up process.
It’s not all fun and games though. Being a parent is tough, and that means cracking down on their behavior at times. You can give them time-outs, ground them, or even restrict their favorite activity. How you handle this affects your parenting skill, which increases over time.
The Sims 4: Parenthood doesn’t forget its roots, either, bringing a host of new fashion and build items to the game. Customization is at the core of The Sims experience, and this game pack extends that to the youngest in society. Now, you can add a little bit more character to children’s bedrooms, or let them express their personality through their fashion choices.
The Sims 4: Parenthood Main Characters
One of the best features of The Sims games is the ability to live life as whoever you want to be. You can bring your own life into the virtual world, or you can switch things up and live vicariously as someone else. It’s really up to you!
While The Sims 4 base game has a few recurring characters that you’ll encounter such as Bella Goth and Nancy Landgraab, The Sims 4: Parenthood doesn’t add anyone new to the cast. If you choose to play as a recurring character, they still experience everything The Sims 4: Parenthood has to offer, going through all of the trials and tribulations the same way a custom Sim would.
In a way, you’re the only main character of The Sims 4: Parenthood, and the possibilities that stem from that are infinite.
The Sims 4: Parenthood Titles in the Series
The Sims 4: Parenthood is just a tiny part of an absolutely massive franchise. With a huge amount of titles since the turn of the millennium, The Sims has established itself as the dominant force in the life simulator genre. Such is its stranglehold over the genre that it’s rare anyone even bothers trying nowadays. Perhaps one day we’ll see a real challenger to The Sims‘ crown, but those days are some time away.
The Sims franchise has developed a reputation for releasing a crazy amount of expansion packs for every title. The Sims 4: Parenthood is part of this cycle, serving as a game pack that focuses on expanding one specific element of gameplay. It’s a business model that has served The Sims well over the years, and it’s likely it continues well into its future.
- The Sims (2000)
- The Sims Online (2002)
- The Sims Bustin’ Out (2003)
- The Sims 2 (2004)
- The Urbz: Sims in the City (2004)
- The Sims Life Stories (2007)
- The Sims Pet Stories (2007)
- The Sims Castaway Stories (2008)
- The Sims 3 (2009)
- The Sims Medieval (2011)
- The Sims Social (2011)
- The Sims FreePlay (2011)
- The Sims 4 (2014)
- The Sims Mobile (2018)
The Sims 4: Parenthood Cheat Codes
As with the base game of The Sims 4, Parenthood offers plenty of codes to add to your game that will help you build the best life possible for your Sims. First, make sure cheats are enabled in your Sims 4: Parenthood game. You can do this by pressing Ctrl + Shift + C on your keyboard to open the cheat box and typing testingcheats true.
Skill Cheats
The Sims 4: Parenthood only adds a single skill: parenting. You can adjust the level of this by entering the following into the cheat box:
- stats.set_skill_level adultmajor_parenting X
Simply change “X” to the level you want the skill to be!
Childhood Phase Cheats
During The Sims 4: Parenthood, your children will go through different phases in their early years. It’s just like the real thing! Using cheat codes, you can actually influence which of these phases your child is going through. These are the cheats you need to know:
- Bear (Children Only): traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_bear
- Clingy (Children Only): traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_clingy
- Distant (Teens Only): traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_distant
- Loud: traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_loud
- Mean Streak: traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_meanstreak
- Picky Eater: traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_pickyeater_A
- Rebellious: traits.equip_trait childhoodphase_rebellious
Beware though, your children can only go through one phase at a time, so you’ll have to remove their current phase before adding another. You can do this by entering the following cheat codes:
- Bear (Children Only): traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_bear
- Clingy (Children Only): traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_clingy
- Distant (Teens Only): traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_distant
- Loud: traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_loud
- Mean Streak: traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_meanstreak
- Picky Eater: traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_pickyeater_A
- Rebellious: traits.remove_trait childhoodphase_rebellious
Character Value Cheats
As a parent, it’s natural that the values you hold will influence the person your child grows up to be. The Sims 4: Parenthood mimics this by adding in different values that your children pick up as they grow. These can be influenced using these cheats:
- Conflict Resolution: stats.set_stat lifeskillstatistic_conflictresolution X
- Emotional Control: stats.set_stat lifeskillstatistic_emotionalcontrol X
- Empathy: stats.set_stat lifeskillstatistic_empathy X
- Manners: stats.set_stat lifeskillstatistic_manners X
- Responsibility: stats.set_stat lifeskillstatistic_responsibility X
These cheats work on a scale from -100 to 100, with 100 being the best value. Again, replace X with a value between -100 to 100 to change these.
Character Value Trait Cheats
As Sims age in The Sims 4: Parenthood, they acquire some new traits along the way. Using these cheat codes, you can push them in the right (or wrong!) direction in life, playing God to give them particular traits:
- Bad Manners: traits.equip_trait BadManners
- Good Manners: traits.equip_trait GoodManners
- Irresponsible: traits.equip_trait Irresponsible
- Responsible: traits.equip_trait LifeSkills_Responsible
- Argumentative: traits.equip_trait Argumentative
- Mediator: traits.equip_trait Mediator
- Uncontrolled: traits.equip_trait Uncontrolled
- Emotional Control: traits.equip_trait EmotionalControl
- Compassionate: traits.equip_trait Compassionate
- Insensitive: traits.equip_trait LifeSkills_Unfeeling
The Sims 4: Parenthood Cheat Code FAQs
Do Base Game Sims 4 Cheats Work in Parenthood?
Yes. Even if you have The Sims 4: Parenthood installed, all of the cheat codes that you’re able to use in the base game continue to work as normal in the expansion. It’s still essentially the same game, and The Sims 4: Parenthood only builds on top of the original.
The cheats in The Sims 4 base game can be used to highlight some of the features Parenthood has to offer. For example using the motherlode cheat in the base game gets you 50,000 simoleons. This could remove the burden of having to work to support your children, instead allowing you to spend the time developing a stronger relationship with them.
What Platforms Can The Sims 4: Parenthood Cheats Be Used On?
Unfortunately for console players, The Sims 4: Parenthood cheat codes are exclusive to PC. This is due to the cheat box being unavailable for access on PlayStation and Xbox versions of the game. Across the board, this is exactly the same, with cheats for every Sims 4 expansion only available on PC.
If you’re on console, you’ll have to go through The Sims 4: Parenthood journey legitimately.
Is It Worth Cheating In The Sims 4: Parenthood?
That depends on what you want from the game. If you want the game to play out a natural chain of events, then it may be best not to cheat. However, if you want to manipulate everything about your Sims’ lives, then using these cheats can be a great way of doing so. For example, your child may not be growing up with the traits you want them to, and with cheats you can change that in an instant!
Ultimately, The Sims is always such a personal experience, and it’s up to you to decide what’s right for your own playthrough of the game.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Electronic Arts.