Where do you eat dinner? At the table? On the couch? In your bed? If you’re a Sim, you eat all of your meals at all three of those places consecutively during the same meal. I’m freaking sick of it.
In The Sims 4, Sims refuse to sit and stay seated while they eat. I do not understand this, and it’s making me lose my shit. In my experience, when you begin eating a meal, you tend to stay put. If you’re standing at a counter, you’ll stay there until the meal is done. If you’re sitting at the table, you’ll finish your meal there. If you’re in bed, you’ll get crumbs all over your bed and curse yourself for doing it, but you’ll still sit in one spot until you are done eating. Not so for Sims. They get up and walk around and do other things, extending what should be a short activity into an hours long saga.
I am not kidding about how long it takes. If you want to make sure your Sim makes it to work on time, you have to make sure they start eating breakfast at least an hour before they have to leave their home. It will take them that entire hour to eat breakfast, provided they are the only one in the house. If another Sim comes around, they’ll not only start talking to each other, the Sim eating breakfast will get up and leave their meal to do so. Then your Sim will end up going to work miserable and hungry.
One of the greatest joys of playing a Sim family that you’ve raised from the creation of your main Sim to the birth of their children is seeing them all eat dinner together. I try to get screenshots whenever they’re all sitting at the table, just for my own collection, or to use in articles later. But during the course of the meal, Sims will just get up, their food half eaten, and do something else. Why? You’re still hungry! Just sit, just freaking sit!
With the Seasons expansion, Sims got holidays, some of which require eating a “Grand Meal” together to celebrate. For the most part, this system works. They’ll all grab a serving of the Grand Meal, which is in its own special category of meals when you cook it, and then usually they stay at the table to eat it together. I love this. What I don’t get is why it doesn’t happen every time. Holidays are special and have special rituals, sure. But family meals can also be everyday rituals intended to create togetherness. I want my Sims to experience that. Or to at least finish eating before they get distracted.
It’s great that Sims are able to multitask in new ways in The Sims 4. But I just want my Sims to finish eating breakfast without getting up to pet the dog. Can they do that? Please?