A few days ago, I decided to choose a Moody Family Cult household in Brindleton Bay that I hadn’t played yet, essentially starting from scratch. I had pre-made 13 families to move into the town originally and I felt like an easy challenge, so I chose Shelly Moody because she was a single Sim, living alone in a tiny house, and a single Sim is easier to manage than a whole family, especially when your whole town is off-the-grid. I also only had 5 unplayed households left to play to choose from, most of which were single bachelors and bachelorettes, and I wasn’t in the mood for romancing. I thought at the very least, I could make her interested in Charlie or Faith and I could force a love triangle, which sounded typical, but interesting given the story’s current context that Charlie (cult leader) and Faith (his 2nd in command) are currently engaged and they’re both friends with every single person in the cult. I was curious about what would happen if I caused a rift, would the game be smart enough for the rest of the cult to have opinions or feelings about the ensuing drama and possible breakup? Would they shun the newcomer?

Well, I never found out because I never got that far!

The reason I chose Shelly to play right out of the gate on Day 1 of my Sims Bunker Extended World Tour Spring 2024, was because when I clicked on her household in world view, there was a curious little symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the box with all of her financial and household information. I had no idea what it was (I should have taken a screenshot!), so I decided to play her household and find out!

Shelly…had an INFANT.

So that’s what that symbol meant! She had an infant! Why didn’t they fucking say so?? How the hell did she get an infant when I created her household in 2020 and Growing Together wasn’t even released until 2023?? I mean obviously there were infants in the game prior to and without the Growing Together expansion pack, the pack just made them playable, but I was pretty sure that either without it, you couldn’t create infants in Create-A-Sim, and/or B, that I simply wouldn’t do that to myself! But I guess you can and I did! Wtf was I thinking bringing an INFANT into an off-the-grid commune that may or may not be a cult!?

But honestly?

Playing Shelly and baby Brylee was actually some of the most fun I’ve had in this challenge and not a lot of the gameplay was hindered or made more difficult in any way by being off-the-grid! The biggest challenge, as with pretty much every household in this challenge, was getting that Handiness Skill up to level 9 so Shelly could craft a BATH TUB and keep herself clean enough to stay motivated to do other things! And actually the baby kept her Social Needs up most of the time and gave her all kinds of positive moodlets, which actually helped her overcome her initial grubbiness!

Toddlers Suck, But Infants Rock!

I’ve actually never been able to relate to a Sim more than I related to Shelly Moody through taking care of Brylee through her infancy up until she was a toddler. Sims have idealistic career paths (for the most part, they introduced layoffs recently, wtf?), marriages, and families, even the art career, which you’d think, me being an artist I would relate to it, but no, not really. There’s simply a large portion of this game that I really enjoy, I just don’t feel any relation to it. I don’t know how it feels to be famous or magical; or sell a painting for more than $1000; or go skiing, explore a jungle, or go camping; and the toddlers in the game are 10,000% more annoying than my actual kids ever were, so I’m really guessing at how those things would feel. But the babies made me fall in love hard. These Sims made me feel something for the first time in my 24 years playing the game.

In the beginning, life with an infant was difficult because, like a real baby, tiny Brylee’s sleep patterns weren’t predictable yet. Once she moved from a bassinet to a crib (I used a playpen instead, not sure why ), it was easier to “sleep when she sleeps”. Once they had a routine, I could better predict how many tasks Shelly could get done in the time Brylee was asleep.

While sleeping, infants recharge slower than adults, so it was actually fairly easy to stay ahead of her. Shelly could pee, shower, make food or eat, and craft three wooden bath tubs at the woodworking table while Brylee was asleep or playing with toys, for at least $4500 every 24 hours.

Pro Tip: When playing an infant in this challenge, make sure you breastfeed or you’ll be running empty bottles to the garbage can constantly because it’s better to not have a sink. Not having a sink means more garbage, more garbage means more Bits & Pieces and Scavenging For Parts through recycling, both of which are extremely useful for upgrading things and crafting candles. But do it after you have the ability to bathe or your Sim is gonna have a bad time…

What I loved the most about taking care of an infant in this challenge, was how fast Shelly’s Parenting Skill went up doing interactions with baby Brylee, like having “tummy time” and helping her sit up and stand, because of the added skill bonus you get from living in a tiny house. (All the Sims in this off-the-grid cult challenge start off living in tiny homes because they all started off with such meagre funds.)

The thing I loved the most about playing an infant in general, was introducing her to new foods. I thought that level of detail was great, and so wholesome, and typical of The Sims franchise. It was very endearing. My only wish was that the baby should have made a sour face when she tried lemon. I was disappointed after trying them all that there were really only a few animations for all the foods.

All in all, I loved playing an infant so much, that I played Brylee on Long Lifespan, which I think ended up being ~30 in-game days, and I did not feel the urge to age her up into a toddler any earlier than her actual birthday. I have toddlers in other households and find them pretty annoying after a while. I always want to give in and age them up early because I play on Long Lifespan and toddlers are cute, but mostly fucking annoying in this challenge. Because I’m not cheating in this challenge either, aging them up early is not an option and is just part of the pain of the whole thing. My stupidity for making 8 person households with multiple pets and toddlers!

I knew not killing everyone in such complex off-grid households was possible, or The Sims folks wouldn’t have made a whole expansion pack based on Eco Living and off-the-grid lots, but I couldn’t guarantee the kids wouldn’t get taken away! So far, none have and everyone’s a B or better student! It probably helps that none of the adults have jobs! But Shelly and Brylee already have a much closer relationship with each other than the households that started with toddlers being the youngest. Shelly’s Parenting Skill is also much higher because of the tiny house bonus and the fact that the game makes you interact with the infant so regularly just keeping her fed, clean, happy, and diapered.

It was nice that Brylee was playable and not basically a piece of interactive furniture, like the babies are in the Base Game. I found that as long as there were multiple toys on the ground, I could more or less keep her happy by having her alternate between playing with all the toys in her vicinity all day, in between naps and feedings. While she did that, Shelly was busy – you guessed it – crafting wooden bath tubs! Because so far this community *cough* cult runs strictly on a handcrafted wooden bath tub economy, with a bit of entrepreneurial knitting thrown in for the Sims who enjoy it!

Speaking of knitting, adding the ability to knit infant onesies was much appreciated! I assume that was an addition to the Growing Together pack, or is a result of the pack existing. Shelly never found the time to get into knitting and Plopsy because wooden bath tubs was so profitable and efficient, which is what you need when playing with an infant while having no stable source of income, but in one of the other households I played directly after her, I noticed onesies were a thing! Good to know for future babies!

I guess it’s safe to say that Growing Together is one of my favourite expansion packs for The Sims 4! I think I’d rate it in my top 5 so far, with the understanding that I’ve barely played any expansion packs all the way through as intended expansions. I’ve usually used the items, clothing, aspirations, and sometimes careers, while mostly ignoring new worlds, venues, and storylines. Maybe it’s because it’s such a small pack relatively speaking, I was able to play it so thoroughly.

Combined with the Parenthood game pack, Growing Together is a solid investment in your Sims library!