Please Help!

Yes, pregnant Sims are generally harder to keep up with as far as their needs are concerned. They get hungry quicker and they tire more easily and have to go to the bathroom more often (much like a pregnant woman in real life). Once you get used to having to sort them all out, it gets easier to manage them all. It's always been easiest for me when the Sims operated on different schedules, such as when one adult is at work and the older children and teenagers are at school, then you can concentrate on whoever is left at home. Or when one or two of them are sleeping then you can take care of the others. And keep in mind that some actions they can take care of while at work or school, such as eating and using the bathroom, so if they're having a need for it when you send them off they'll take care of it on their own. All of this is of course assuming you have free will turned on under the game options so they can act autonomously.

And if you want some practice at it I would suggest working with a household that only has one or two Sims in it for a while so you don't have to worry about so many at once.

Angelic, you've actually selected one of the more tricky households on the game. The teenager (Dustin is it?) is already failing at school and is rebellious, Brandy is pregnant and she still has to help out with Beau, all the while living in a tiny crummy house/trailer with no actual ways and means to expand it easily so there is room for all her kids.

Whilst Brandy is pregnant, I recommend that Dustin takes care of Beau because teenagers can and all. She should also have a job to earn some money. She'll get maternity leave for a while so that's useful. Then you can pay for a nanny eventually though they're awful in TS2.

There is no way for you to make them all happy all at once because the household is already in a bad state when you get there. All you can do is try your best to slowly work to the goals you want them to achieve.

In a way, I think this makes the Broke household one of the most interesting households in the game because they're more of a challenge. It's a refreshing change because normally you have Sims who are easy to look after and eventually become very self sufficient.

quote Angelic

Haha - I realised they were one of the hardest after I played a few more! Stupid me...

Thank you also for the tips, Tay Rex! Those were really helpful and I will use them in future gaming. The paid whilst on maternity leave is really great but the nannies are awful. They just take your food supplies and watch TV. My baby was screaming and she just sat there doing nothing!

Oh I absolutely hate the nannies. However your Sim can't go to work unless there's another adult or teenager in the house to keep an eye on the toddlers and children. It would drive me insane because they wouldn't potty train toddlers either and would instead just let them make their nappies dirty. It was so frustrating! Anyway, that's a WHOLE other thread.

Typically all you can do with the Broke family is make sure nobody dies, the kids don't get snatched up by social services and in Brandy's free time you should slowly build up skills and career to increase income so you can actually expand the house to fit them all.

The Broke household is an interesting one because you couldn't make a family that challenging yourself without cheats. Brandy is already pregnant and single when you get over there and on top of the tiny house and non-existant household funds, it's very difficult to begin with. The best thing you can do is try as hard as you can to improve things before the new baby comes. Then you have a little bit of a head start.