Round 25: Winter 2021
Since Dad promoted Magdalena to manager, they tend to bother her with their complaints instead of him. They'll actually call her away from the stove just to bitch about Dad's waitress.
I guess it would be pretty hard to top me in my stint as a waitress back in high school! Seriously though, it seems like she's kind of polarising. Dad says she gets a whole heap of tips from half the customers and the other half can't stand her.
So obviously, Dad is still running the diner but he's also working at the office a few days a week. Mum has been at him to use up his vacation time for years and now he's finally starting to do it. Once a week or so, he'll take a day where he doesn't do anything at all.
Mum has been retired for more than 10 years now and she loves having Dad around more.
I think she gets lonely in the house all day, especially now that Camilla and Lila are at school and it's just her and Adelaide.
I really do like being a mother, more than I thought I would but I sometimes feel a little guilty that I'm at work all day. Then I feel guilty that I'm glad I get to go to work all day.
David thinks I work too hard, because I've been at the office until pretty late recently. I probably am working too hard right now, but my work goes through phases where it gets really busy and then times when I can leave right on 5 o'clock. We're just going through a busy phase right now.
If David has extra work to do and it's something he doesn't need to be at the hospital for, he does it at home. Having the kids around while he's working doesn't break his concentration like it does mine. I need quiet.
Every weekend, David normally takes Lila to the playground so she can play soccer. He had to work this weekend, so the task fell to me. David didn't want her to miss out because he thinks she has a problem with aggression and she needs an outlet for it.
I was pretty annoyed, because it was absolutely freezing out there, even though it's still just the beginning of winter.
Finally though, I just decided to join her and I ended up having fun. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed sports. I haven't played regularly in years, not since I was at university.
Maybe we'll make it a regular thing, because it was a nice little bonding thing for us. I don't know if Lila was expecting her mum to be so good at soccer though. I could have gone easier on her but Lila is very competitive (like me!) and she'd be annoyed if she found out that she didn't really win.
She and Dad bond over sports too, though they're of the TV variety. He insists he's too old to run around playing soccer these days so they stick to the couch.
Once David got home from work, we went to visit his brother Evan and his wife Ione in their new house. It's a nice place but it's pretty bare bones right now. Going without anything but the basics isn't something David and I had to go through - we've been sort of spoiled, I suppose.
Evan and Ione seem pretty happy there though but I really think Ione is flat out insane! She already wants another baby and Justin and Xavier were only just born a couple of weeks ago! I didn't want David to come near me ever again when Camilla and Lila were that little!
I'm really not all that interested in other people's babies - you've seen one, you've seen them all - so I stayed downstairs with Ione. She's reading a whole bunch of parenting books. I never found them all that useful but I didn't have the heart to tell her.
Of course, David couldn't wait to go and see his new nephews so he rushed right upstairs with Evan. I don't know a guy who loves babies more than David.
He'd have ten more kids, if he could but I've put my foot down. It's hard enough to get time alone with three kids, I don't even want to think about having four or five!
Besides, we are thisclose to being finished with this screaming stage forever! I don't want to start it all over again with another baby.
David would be thrilled if we had another but I also know much he's enjoying the girls at the ages they are now.
I think he's going to miss the toddler stage, once Adelaide grows out of it. Not me. Personally, I think 3 year-olds are adorable but draining.
I thought Mum would be nagging me more about another baby but we're getting along pretty well. I think she may have finally accepted that this is it. She knows she's not getting any more out of Owen, so for a while, the pressure was all on me. She's got 5 grandchildren now and I think that's plenty.
Mum'll be quite pleased when Adelaide finishes with the potty. It always seems to be her that ends up emptying it.
Adelaide will start pre-school next year and David's trying to get her interested in reading. She's a little young but she likes to listen.
David is already worried her temperament is going to be closer to Lila's than Camilla's. So what? My temperament is closer to Lila's too and I must have turned out fine, seeing he married me.
He doesn't want Lila (or Adelaide) getting in trouble at school or losing friendships because she has a temper. I honestly think he's worrying too much but I'm humouring him and just making sure I keep an eye on her.Extras:
Those of you who play restaurants, have you ever seen anything like this?
Lia approached Julian and the action in his queue was "Be Asked For Help". They spoke for a little while and then he walked off.
Whatever their conversation was, Lia was not happy with the results! It happened again later with a townie, except the townie had a dining table in his speech bubble instead of a simolean sign.I'm not going to complain about that though, because you may have noticed that the diner is fixed! I did nothing at all but Julian is suddenly able to work as the host again. Yay! It feels like it's been broken forever.
Notes:
- Title is from I Am Sound by the Dandy Warhols.
- OK, I know we've discussed this before but I really think Camilla and Lila might be identical! Except for eye colour (Lila's are brown, Camilla's are blue), I can't see a difference in their faces at all.
- So Camilla was hardly in this but I did play with her quite a bit. I think she's a candidate for a future Popularity Sim. I entered the house and she's got three wants to make friends with various other playables. I'll watch her at school this round and see if it continues. Lila is quite the little psycho and I've got no idea what will become of her. I just finished playing Betsy and Kimberly, who went out to dinner at The Claudette and Lila was there, by herself, just randomly scowling at people.
- Collette finally rolled away the grandchild want. Her new persistent want is to Become a Witch. Sorry, Collette - we did that already, remember? She must be very keen on being evil though because it won't roll away. Max Nihill has that want constantly now too.
- Do you guys enforce retirement on your Sims who don't want roll the want for it? I'm wondering what I'll eventually do with Julian and my other Fortune Sims (most other aspirations seem to roll the retirement want eventually). I'm mostly happy to let him keep working but I keep getting stuck on the realism factor. How realistic is it for someone to be working at 75 or 80, even part time? Whenever I hear of people that old working, it's mentioned as quite the oddity. So I'm mulling all this over.
- Speaking of retirement, I am getting a lot of adults rolling retirement wants recently (I've had them before - Mina and Kit both had retirement wants before they aged to elder) and I think it's a grandchild related thing. Once a grandchild is born, the grandparents are more likely to roll a retirement want, whether they're elders or not. Once Declan was born, Trent and Henry both rolled it and I'm expecting Araminta to roll it too (Megan is Fortune secondary, so she might not). Anyway...you all probably knew that, but in case you didn't, there you go!
Glad Collette seems pleased with her grandkids, it doesn't seem likely she'll be getting another one anytime soon. Funny about her consistent want to be a witch.
ReplyDeleteI like Kirsten's comment about babies, seen one, seen them all. I'm almost of the same sentiment. I have to really like you for me to care about oodling over the babies.
I really like Julian and his diner. I hate he's getting to the age he is. *sigh* As for retirement. I haven't had to enforce it yet, in the past most of my sims roll the wants. There are people that continue working in their old age, I had a grandparent who worked until her mid 70's, part time only, and she had to stop when she needed hip replacement. So I guess, I'd just go with the flow, if a sim's personality seems likely to continue working.
Or you could just add it to your ROS for seniors, like LH for when people go to work. You could add retirement to it, and/or health issues that cause retirement, etc. Low percentage for those at the younger years, and higher percentage the older they get.
I'm guessing for Lia that she didn't like the price on the menu? I'm not sure.
But for the dining table, I got this a lot at Peanuts, the little pub, and I figured out what it was. They want to sit at a table. If there's no table open (only barstools), some sims get upset. There will be a table want over the customer, and then an X'ed out table from the host, to say there's none open. Then the customer usually gets upset, loses some star points, and the entire process of "selling" starts over. I had to make Peanut's bigger and add more tables, cause some sims refuse to sit at the bar.
Whew!
With the money sign like that, I would guess he's saying it's too expensive. She looks like she's thinking, "Good riddance!"
ReplyDeletePoor David-- surrounded by ill tempered and strong women! That can't be easy, but he has to love them.
I love Kirstin's thought. "My temperament is closer to Lila's too and I must have turned out fine, seeing he married me." Haha, yeah!
Kristin is funny and mean. She was beating her daughter's butt-and gloating about it.
ReplyDeleteHmm, far as retirement I guess it depends on the job of the sim and how likely they can be replaced. Currently, my oldest sims are 50 and one is a self-employed artist, the other the pastor for the hood. Both occupations can be realistically kept until their 70s
Thanks for reading, everyone!
ReplyDeleteMaisie, nope, no more grandkids for Collette, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Naomi's 46 now, so it's unlikely there, even accidentally and Kirstin is definitely done. And I don't really want her to have another, lovely as her girls are!
I was thinking of a friend of mine when I was writing some of Kirstin's thoughts. She has two kids but she always says she doesn't like kids in general, she likes her kids and some other people's kids but not all kids. I see Kirstin as the same. David though - he probably just likes all kids!
Julian's getting up there in years, isn't he? He's still pretty active but that doesn't mean much in the Sims, does it? Elders just suddenly drop dead after being fine a second before!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on retirement. I've got some thinking to do.
Geez, if Lia doesn't like the prices at the Greasy Spoon, I can't imagine what she'd think of The Claudette. The Greasy Spoon is pretty cheap! She must be a bit of a miser, LOL!
But the dining table thing makes perfect sense! I didn't notice to see if all the tables were occupied but seeing there aren't many, they probably were. Hmmm...there's an upstairs section of the restaurant that I've never used. It might be time to put some tables up there and use it!
Lunar, it was funny because Julian sort of walked off like he'd just said, "if you don't like it, you can leave!" Which is probably what I'd say if someone wandered into my el-cheapo restaurant and started bitching about the prices. But then I never did last long in food service!
David is all too familiar with strong women like his wife and daughters. His MIL and his sister are also very strong and hot-headed, so he knows what he's dealing with here! And his mother was Maria, who was, while not ill-tempered, very strong. He knows what trouble they can get into, so he's trying to avoid it with his daughters.
I love writing for Kirstin. There's an ever so tiny bit of me in her. ;)
Apple Valley, yeah, but don't think Lila wouldn't do the same if the tables were turned! She's a little spitfire!
And that's something else to consider with retirement - the type of job. I'd already been planning on making my Sims in more physical careers retire from them early, a la Laura's rules but I'm going to do some more thinking about retirement ages for different careers.
I love this family. The girls are all so cute, David is a sweetie and the women... well they're so much fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Collette is easing up the pressure on Kirstin. She has 5 grandchildren already, that should be enough.
Sari, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI adore David. I have a real soft spot for those Sims who are such devoted fathers and he really is. And he copes pretty well with all of the outspoken women he lives with!
I couldn't believe the grandchild want finally rolled away! I hadn't even locked it but Collette gets really persistent wants, which suits her personality, really!
Poor Kirstin, town between work and being at home with the kids, I think it's something every mom worries about. When the is a quiet period at work she can make up for those busy times.
ReplyDeleteAbout the retirement, I don't have any rules about that at the moment, but you're right about the fact that it's just not realistic when a 80-year old is still working. I was thinking about allowing my elders to retire once they are 65, but that they will have to retire at the age of 75, to give the younger generation a chance too.
"Ask for help" sounds like the interaction that occurs in stores, when a salesperson helps the sim who is standing there looking lost, they get stars. But I don't know about the Ask of help interaction in a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteDavid looks a lot like my Hanley--not just the hair, too. However, even if he's really hot I would not be going for the 10 kids with him, lol! I love babies, but that always seems so weird to me when they roll that, especially right after having twins! I love the way Kirsten described Ione as insane; that's what I think every time Sims with newborns roll up wants for more babies.
Tanja, yes, I think you're right - the working mother's dilemma. When Kirstin is home, she spends a lot of time with her daughters, though as a Fortune sim, she doesn't roll many wants for them. I always find they're the worst parents!
ReplyDelete65 is my "okay, you can retire now" age too! I have several Sims who have become grandparents before that age though and they're currently pestering me with retirement wants.
In regards to the retirement thing, over here in the states... it's becoming a bit more normal for people to work later. Which is kind of sad. My grandpa technically retired several years ago and he has a full-time job again, driving a recycling truck almost daily. It's mostly because he can't stand having idle hands, he's worked three or more jobs at once his entire life. He finds sitting around boring. So, if they're very active sims, I can't seem them sitting around and being sedentary. Family sims, though, I can see them retiring ASAP, haha!
ReplyDeleteFor me, I don't bother with realism, so my elders work until I don't want them to. For me, it just gives them something to do and gets them out of my hair, so I usually keep them working, LOL!
Poor Fortune sims! They are some of my favorites, but I've found you can tailor sims to having certain wants in TS2, so I probably manipulate the system quite a bit! Honestly, I'd think I'd be Fortune/Family IRL, so that's probably got a lot to do with it. ;)
Mao, we're seeing that a lot here in Australia too and I see it a lot in my line of work especially. I guess it's because it's easy to stop teaching and then come back years later and there won't necessarily be a whole bunch of technology to catch up with (theoretically).
ReplyDeleteAnd that was my previous philosophy on working elders - get out of my hair! I'm getting a bit more picky with realism in my game recently though, so I'm looking for a different method. Going by personality and aspiration, Julian probably would keep working until he's deep in the cold, cold ground - he's got 8 active points and I think he'd probably be bored if I had him retire.
I sometimes say I don't like Fortune Sims but several of my favourite Sims are Fortune (Finn, Victoria, Cordy), so I can't dislike them too much!
I've never been too successful at training Fortune Sims but Kendal has Lake pretty good and trained! Romance Sims are the easiest to train, in my experience.
"Sometimes feel a little guilty that I'm at work all day. Then I feel guilty that I'm glad I get to go to work all day."
ReplyDeleteOh, mommy guilt, lol! How I know this!
LOL, everything about this post! I think Kirstin is my long lost soul-sister or something! The complaining about playing outside because it's cold! The bit about other people's babies, LOL! OMG, she's my new favorite! For sure!!!
High maintenance mommy :)
I think people working in their own businesses at that age is much more common than if he were working a different kind of job. I usually tailor it to their wants and/or character. I have a few Sims retiring this year - 1 who rolled a want for it, and 2 more that just seemed tired. They're all 67 or 68.
Laura, LOL! I'm glad you like her because I adore Kirstin. Most of her rants are my rants. Except enjoying work. I would never work again if I didn't have to!
ReplyDeleteNah, I probably wouldn't have him sell the business, even if he does retire because you're right, people who own their own businesses often work for longer. Julian's still got the Maxis "Business Tycoon" job, as well as the diner, and it's the Maxis job I might retire him from. Except probably not, now that I've thought about it, because I just remembered how annoying Fortune Sims are when they retire!