Hates Children Fix and Opt-Out of Caregiver Job for Parents

Sometimes you just wonder why something doesn’t feel right, and after weeks of playing the Sims 4 I noticed a bit of a flaw in the world of parenting: the Hates Children Trait was pointless! But instead of removing the trait, I decided to fix it, along with a few other things connected to the world of parents, who don’t like children.

There is one zip file that contains three flavours of the mod:
1. HatesChildren_Fix.package contains the simple fix for the Hates Children Trait.
2. ParentsCaregiver-OptOut.package allows parents to choose if they want to be a caregiver to a toddler.
3. Caregiver_HatesChildren_Combo.package is both merged into one.

Please only use one of the packages in the zip and not all three, it shouldn’t do any harm having all three in your MODS folder, but just to be safe I wouldn’t recommend it. Pop the package you want to use into your mods folder (Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods) and play!

OPTING OUT OF BEING A CAREGIVER

First up on the mod is that Sim Parents can opt-out of being the assigned Caregiver of their toddlers. This stops them autonomously approaching the toddler to check on them, however they will still occasionally approach them to see what they are doing, as they do not lose their parent flag. (I may fix this as well, I haven’t decided yet.)
The fix does not automatically remove the caregiver flag from parents, as this would then mean the toddler stands a chance of having nobody assigned to look after them, and that might break the game. You must first enter the Toddler Care pie menu, select “Adopt as Caregiver”, let the notification pop up saying your sim is their caregiver, then go back into the pie-menu and click “Remove Care Dependant” in the Toddler Care menu. You only need to do this once per-toddler, as the fix remains even when you restart the game, providing you saved.

HATES CHILDREN FIX

Sims with the Hates Children trait will now get the same negative moodlets from their own toddlers and children, just like they do from other Sims kids. You don’t need to do anything to make this work, just those who have the Hates Children trait will get the moodlets, so you can still have your happy family…but with one of the parents being angry/tense msot of the time. It makes for some good drama!
This fix does NOT remove any positive buffs the parent with the trait would normally get from their children. Example: A toddler triggers the parent to have the “Ugh, Toddlers!” tense buff from Hates Children, but at the same time the toddler increases a skill and gives that parent the “Growing Up Fast” happy buff from being that toddlers parent.
Opting out of being a caregiver does not remove these positive buffs either. You will need to use a different fix to scrub away those positive moodlets and buffs, a scrubber is included in my WIP Bad Parent Trait mod.

BUGS

Sims with the Hates Children trait will still get positive moodlets/buffs from interacting with their children, or from them growing up. They will also get sad moodlets/buffs when children are taken away. These are normal Sim behaviours and are NOT bugs with the mod. To fix these moodlets, please use my other WIP Mod: Bad Parent Trait.

CONFLICTS

This mod will not work with other mods that alter the Hates Children Trait, or the behaviour/interaction files for Caregivers/Parenting. Tested with Parenthood DLC, and appears to function as normal.

TECHNICAL STUFF

This mod contains overrides for the following:

(Hates Children FIX) changes Buff_Trait_HatesChildren(Hidden) both Sim Data and Buff Tuning files, to remove the “blacklisted” Parent flags, allowing them to share the same buffs none-parents would get around their own children.
(Opt-Out of Parenting) changes the following interaction, situation and action tuning files: Sim_AddCaregiver, caregiver_SituationToddler, loot_Toddler_RemoverCaregiver, loot_RemoveToddlerCaregivers, sim_RemoveCaregiver and sim_remove_CTCaregiver. These required the blacklisted “Parent” flag to be removed, allowing parent sims to access the “add/remove as caregiver” options in the toddler care pie menu.