Hates Children Tweaks

PLEASE READ
I, unfortunately, do not have time to continue actively working on this mod. I will update it to work with patches when I can, but it will no longer be expanded upon by me. If you wish to take what tweaks I have done and put them in something else, then go for it!

Change Log
May 10th 2026: Fixed the character value icons so they aren't blank. Added a 'Hang Up' option to the school phone call chance cards.

The Hates Children trait is one of many 'surface' traits in the game that sounds like it does a lot, but it doesn't; digging through the game's files, I found you can stick a Hates Children sim in the same household as someone who is Family Oriented, and they will both behave exactly the same around a child they created, which renders the trait completely pointless as it is.

My old version of the mod just made it so Sims who had the Hates Children trait would get the same angry/tense buffs they did around other Sims kids on their own kids as well. So the 'Ugh! Children!' tense/angry buff would appear when around their own kids, too. Thankfully, Lumpinou's RPO mod fixed this already during my overhaul of the old mod I made, and they also added a bunch of other great things for diverse family dynamics.etc, and I highly recommend you their RPO mod anyway. I haven't tweaked the trait to allow 'Ugh! Children!' with sims own kids anymore because Lumpinou's mod already covers this, but they failed to handle a few other aspects of the trait, which is why this tweak mod still exists.


REQUIREMENTS: BASE GAME, PARENTHOOD, GROWING TOGETHER

Parenthood DLC Tweaks

Dismissive Advice

The Problem: Hates Children Sims currently are required to give perfect, "happy family" advice to children/teens.
The Fix: These Sims will rarely ever be approached for advice, even if all relationship bits are intact. When they are approached, a 'dismissive' response is available regardless of if they have the Hates Children Trait or not, which will cause loss of confidence in child Sims, a loss in two character values (which are hidden until you use the dismissive option), and a chance for a hurt sentiment.
When the school calls for Parenting chance cards, there is a 'Hang Up' option that always lowers Responsibility, Manners, and the child's confidence level. Again, this option is available to those even without the trait and selecting it will not give the Sim any Parenting Skill.
NOTE: A Sim that uses the dismissive option will NOT gain Parenting Skill from it; they will only gain Parenting Skill from choosing a 'vanilla' option.


No Parenting Skill

The Problem: These Sims gain Parenting skill just by hugging or talking, which makes zero sense for their character.
The Fix: Sims with this trait will never gain the Parenting skill. Any "hidden points" EA tries to award will decay rapidly, ensuring the skill stays at level 0.
I recommend Lumpinou's 'Weaknesses and Talents' mod for extra security.
Reduced Autonomous Affection

The Problem: EA treats Hates Children Sims as "neutral" toward autonomous hugs and kisses.
The Fix: Autonomous "Family Kisses" and "Loving Hugs" have been set to -50 (Repulsive) for the AI. They won't seek out affection from the children who cause them distress. Note: You can still manually trigger these actions if you want.

Current Limitations

Desperation: If a Sim is extremely low on Social or Fun, the game AI may still force a social interaction as a last resort.
Happy Sentiments: Even when forcing the game to differentiate between which interaction you click is 'good' and 'bad', the game still automatically flags a child as being given good advice just by interacting with the parent, long before you choose anything; this is just how the game was designed (everything happy and nothing bad). I advise you to use either UI Cheats or MCCC to delete the fake happy sentiment unless you want to storytell that the child is delusional.


Base Game and Growing Together Tweaks
In the vanilla game, biological parents are forced into the "Caregiver" role regardless of their traits. This mod introduces the ability for Hates Children Sims to fully reject their parental responsibilities.

The "Remove as Caregiver" Interaction
Sims with the Hates Children trait can click on an Infant or Toddler to Sever Parental Ties.

All Hates Children Sims will ignore bassinet cries by default.
They will not "Check On" newborns/infants/toddlers autonomously.
They will no longer receive happy buffs for birthdays, milestones, or if a Toddler/Infant does something 'cute'.
They cannot "brag about baby", share baby pictures, swap baby milestone stories, or "gossip about other parents". Note: These options are removed from their pie menu as well, so you cannot manually trigger them.
If a child is whisked away by social services, the Hates Children Sim will not receive sad buffs (even if it's their own child who has been taken away).

Using this interaction removes the "Has Met" relationship bit. To the Hates Children Sim, the child essentially becomes a stranger.
Infants will be almost completely ignored.
Toddlers will not autonomously approach the Sim for help.
As the Sim is stripped of Mother/Father relationship bit, they will lose access to the 'Parenting' pie menu if the Parenthood DLC is installed.
The relationship bar will remain as it was when the connection was severed, and will decay so long as the sim does not interact with the infant/toddler.
Technical Notes
The Sims 4 engine is designed to force parents to care for their children; the only way to make the severance permenant is to break the family tree, and that can cause all kinds of problems. I have kept the "BirthParent" bit active (to prevent incest) which preserves the family tree, but the game will occasionally try to force the Caregiver role back onto your Sim because of it.

To keep the mod working effectively, you may need to click "Remove as Care Dependent" again when loading the game, when moving into a lot, or after the parent has been left home alone with the child.

Once a toddler becomes a Child, the "Remove Dependent" option disappears as the "Check On" autonomy is no longer needed.

Clicking "Remove as Care Dependant" on a newborn will generate a last exception, because Newborns are objects and not technically Sims yet. You shouldn't have to use the interaction with a Newborn anyway, as the mod already makes the Hates Children Sim ignore the broadcast/cries from the bassinet. (The interaction will still remove the Mother/Father and Son/daughter relationship and 'Has_Met' relbit, but functionally it's pointless to do this until the newborn is an Infant or Toddler.)

This mod functions by inserting various tests to relevant caregiving and family files, and either whitelisting the Hates Children trait (such as allowing them to access removal of the caregiver role which is blocked usually for biological parents) or adding it to a blacklist (such as to the infant/toddler broadcaster whenever they cry, so they won't 'check on' them). So any mods that alter the caregiver role and relbits for parantage may be incompatible. However, I have tested this with Lumpinou's RPO and Pandasama's Childbirth mods, and they still work fine.