I always put my locked bin enclosure right at the back of the lot. Then watch the mean sims as they spend a few minutes diabolically giggling to themselves, then several sim hours gleefully creeping up on the bin, and then that final sigh and shoulder slump of defeat when they realise they can't get to the bin. Then I laugh as they take another few sim hours to walk all the way back to the lot portal! If you put a hedge maze or other obstacles in the way, even more fun! :D

Weird. Because I have a faint memory of Ginger staying home while Gavin went to school and held down a part time job. When the school bus showed up, I just cancelled Ginger's 'Go to School' action and directed Gavin to get the bus. Unless the game does something where even if Ginger is home Gavin thinks no one is home, I have no idea. I might have to check the household in one of my other hoods to check this out. Seems odd, but interesting.

The NID thing was just me throwing in a possible cause, if that's not it, then that's a theory dead.

Thanks for the idea, I'll keep this in mind!

The word "mod conflict" leaps to mind, simply because this is so weird and weird usually means mod conflict. I've played the Newsons several times and sometimes the game tripped me up on which one stayed home on a particular day, but I've been able both to alternate and to keep Ginger home. I've sometimes had to finesse my timing in cases of caretaker conflict, but this is extreme. You could experiment with other sims who are supposed to leave about the same time - put two parents in the same job so that they leave at the same time and see if you can get more parameters but if it's a mod conflict then the old 50/50 is probably faster.

The simplest solution, of course, is to hire a nanny. The Newsons have plenty of money to bear the expense for the four days of toddlerhood if you do a careful build for them, or rent them a suitable apartment. By which I do not mean a Maxis one! My own Manufactured Homes were designed with the Newsons and Ottomai in mind and I'm sure a little poking around will turn up many others that would work for them.

Well, whoever may have that problem in the future can work it out that way. My Garrett and Georgia are kids now, and though Gavin now has an F in school, he's got plenty of time to make it up before college.

Strange tendency what ACR has is to send my sims woohoo an hour before carpool comes.
"And now you are going to sleep for 5 minutes?"

Well, what else are you going to do in that awkward time between the 'carpool will arrive in an hour' and 'beep beep'?

As a married person? This is the first thing about ACR that sounds realistic to me.

If it's a mod, it's InTeen, but I'm pretty sure it was the same in pure vanilla. And nannies are banned in all my hoods for being a useless waste of space - I used to murder them with great regularity, so now I ban them for their own protection.

I have occasionally put the Newsons with the Goodies, but Flexischool for Ginger seems to have worked this time around.

"That's hilarious and a little... disturbing!"

I said that to myself when I was playing one of my mini-megahoods and Dina Ross got invited on an outing from Marty Anderson. The "disturbing" part is that the previous day, Dina had met Daniel Pleasant and they, literally, had spent all the day together (you can imagine how )! Marty Anderson works in the Athletic career too and he is Daniel's BFF, "bro", whatever! So when Dina got the call and Marty said "after the great time my friend Daniel had with you last night..." I felt a little weird! Of cource, Dina Ross is no saint so she had no problem at all to meet Marty and his other friends. At least it's the Sims, if this happened IRL, things would have gotten a different meaning...

"Who do you expect to pay you for that?" I ask Nathan Gavigan as he plops down a tip jar and starts playing the piano in his rec room, at two in the morning, while his entire family sleeps.

I said to Julian, "Why don't you get into bed with Andrew?"

He must have been listening, because that's exactly what he did. He walked across the living room, went into the master bedroom where he took his clothes off (well, what little he was wearing!) and climbed into the big comfortable bed beside Andrew. Minutes later they were snuggled up together with the light out.

Trouble was they weren't at home, and it wasn't their bed! It was Christmas Day, and the Jeffreys family had invited Julian for the day. Julian in turn invited Andrew (now his husband) to come and join them and roast the turkey for the Christmas Dinner. It was quite late before they ate, as the family weren't really hungry, but late in the afternoon, Andrew did his stuff and made a delicious meal for them. I suppose Andrew felt that he'd earned a rest, and he didn't fancy the long journey home -- at least not yet. . . . And Peter and Jemma's marital bed seemed very inviting. So, some time between 10 and 11, he slipped away from the festivities, and climbed into that bed, and was soon fast asleep. And then, soon after eleven, with only a little verbal encouragement from me, Julian went and joined him. Both were of course completely autonomous. (I have a "Sleep on Community Lots" mod which has the side effect of letting your visitors go to sleep in your bed instead of going home.)

What am I to do with these boys? And what are Peter and Jemma to do? Sleep on the sofas? It's not easy to shoo the boy who cooked your Christmas Dinner out of bed.

After the third time cancelling a "splash" action while the rain is ongoing: "Stop calling down lightning!"

After an unlucky hiking: "STOP being chased by bees AT ONCE!"

Frat bro sim: *as he waits for the grocery delivery, picks up a piece of pizza that had been left out*

Me: "NO. Put that down, it has flies on it, you grossf***."

"We're on an island and I can't do a damn beach lot."
Why are there so few and why do they fit nowhere.

Because it's really hard to get the angle of the shore right in combination with a close enough street in Sim City 4.

"Stop calling so she can throw her party! Why do you want to ruin her birthday?"

"Oh wow, you are fun at parties!"

William Zimmermann (né Williamson) returned from work during a birthday party for his toddler twins. In the special event sequence where his daughter grew up to a child, he walked in and took away the cake to throw it away.

Ginger Newson did that to Garrett's cake! Everyone had to eat from Georgia's.

I just found myself saying, irritated: Have sex already!

"Stop bringing David Ottomas home! Do you want to die?!"

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the David Ottomas as a sim; he's a sweet boy with interesting features. However, in Plague Town he has the flu, so if he stays for too long... people get sick. Why not cure him? I like to play on the edge...

"Get back in here! You're a grown man. You are NOT going up on the roof to jump in puddles in your pyjamas!"

My past games Eli and Ami you guy have to stop trying to sneak snacks while starving and cook proper meals instead.I downloaded a no autonomous fridge patch and installed it so they can't do that anymore and must be directted to get food which means they make better choices with mealtimes now.

"Yes - go and look at insects, you crazy bastard."

"...That's kinda hot."

"No! I was gonna attack you!"

Often when I'm playing I'll start sounding like a WUM parody. "Don't fall asleep when it is half past five! Oh no, you're never gonna sleep tonight!"

"Still hungry. I guess make spaghetti now, just try not to burn that too...."

If Pascal's still hungry even after this he's getting a bag of chips.