Sims2: Social Worker visits

Jeanette Ebadi spent the day outside, playing in the snow.  She got so cold that the neighbours were worried and called the social worker.  She came and lectured Jeanette's father Jerry about taking better care of their children.  The social worker then took Jeanette away.

My heart sinks every time I see that blue van roll up.  I know it's just a game, but I do get pretty attached to my little fake kids.

Some people enjoy killing off their Sims, but I've never been too fond of that.  You can kill teens, adults, and elders, but not babies, toddlers, or children.  If they get too cold or hungry, if their social needs drop too low, or if children's marks are too bad or they miss too much school, you will get warnings.  If you don't fix it right quick, the social worker comes.

Even if only one child is affected, the social worker will take away all of the household's children, toddlers, and babies.  Teens are unafffected, no matter how much school they miss.  If for some reason you end up with children alone at home (for instance, once I had a family with only one parent, and he died in a fire), the social worker will also come for the children.  Again, not teens, so although you can't create a family with just teens and children, if one arises in the game, you'll be able to continue playing it.

Interestingly, the children, toddlers, and babies taken away go in some invisible bin of kids.  If you direct your Sim to adopt a child, and there are kids that have been taken away, they will show up and be adopted.  They will have their original first name, and everything about them is the same - their memories, clothes, etc.  I've successfully had teens who just turned into adults adopt their younger siblings who were taken away, because of this mechanism.  It's a little odd because the younger siblings were not aging, so the age gap between them gets bigger.  The bin seems to work on a last-in, first-out basis.  If you adopt a toddler or child and there are none in the bin, one is randomly generated, including their name.  If you adopt a baby and there are none in the bin, you get to choose their name.