The Parenting Simulator- Now Available on iOS, Google Play and Amazon!

For me, year 17 was the standardized testing year. 18 was all about college apps (and a few more standardized tests required for certain programs and strongly recommended for others) and so far, scholarships.

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Weird potentially very awkward question- are you going to deal with a daughter having her ‘monthly lady problem’ at all? I think that could be very interesting to tackle with a male parent.

Edit: I do note this, because it is a piece of anxiety for young girls- if they’re not maturing as fast as their friends, what if it begins somewhere embarrassing- like at a sports event, or at a camp, etc. And dealing with a dad who doesn’t have first hand experience could be interesting.

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Wew I never expected Hirasawa Yui to be on this thread

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I’m not quite sure how to comment yet due to my little use of this forum, (so please excuse me if this function isn’t being used properly) but I just wanted to let the author know that I honestly am in love with this game. In its demo stage and all. The amount of impact my choices make and watching my little rugrat grow up is something I didn’t expect myself to enjoy so much! Along with its cute and witty writing style that often lead to me cracking up and annoying my family with everything that my fictional child does. I could honestly go on forever, but I’ll end with this: Thank you for putting so much work into this. It clearly shows in my opinion. Good luck to you writer and I hope that everything goes well! Definitely looking forward to the updates and a finished game!

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You’re absolutely right. I forgot SATs are junior year. So they would indeed be Year 17. FYI, I fully intend to mock the ACT with extreme prejudice in this segment. That thing was next to useless even when I went to school, and I’m so old my SAT score was out of 1600. Although I think I heard they went back to that scale anyhow.

@PrettyPrincess Thank you for the kind words! It makes me happy knowing someone appreciates my (half)wit and I look forward to having this completed soon so you can continue to assault your family with our shared insanity. Please check back in a few days for a new chapter!

@Mim Periods and puberty are mostly cut, same reason as I took out dates and crushes. Keeping things as close to G-rated as possible. It’s wrong that including menstruation would be regarded as sexual content since it is anything but. However, I’m not going to die on that hill, or worse, kill my story’s chance of success on it. I’ve done the niche story no one read already, it’s all about mass appeal this time out.

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@hustlertwo
I really appreciate all the work you have done on this game.

I enjoy all the different situations we can experience, and the ability to shape our child’s personality. I like that the game is realistic but it is still positive. You’ve done a great job at writing about the experiences of parenting. I look forward to the rest of the game. Keep up the awesome work. :grin: :heart_eyes:

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Thanks, Oliver. I can’t tell you how lucky I have been that you found and enjoyed this story. You’ve been an excellent tester, and without your efforts I would likely have needed several more weeks getting this ready for publication at the end.

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Thank you! :grin:
Edit
Is Lana a single parent?

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I never decided if she was also a single parent or just had a very lackadaisical husband. Probably the former, though. The latter seems even sadder, to be a single parent in everything but name. I think I might put a mention in about a new husband for her during the graduation scene for those who keep the relationship intact, we’ll give her a little (hopefully) happy ending.

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Have you done anything with height? That’s pretty G-rated but is connected to puberty… and since the MC might not be the biological parent, you can avoid the “nature vs nurture” issue by randomizing it or leaning towards nurture and basing it on foods the kid has eaten (if they had any scenes with food). It could be one of those small events at the end of the year, or even just a few lines. :thinking:

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I could easily slip that into the school shopping scene that will close out year 14. Good thought!

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@hustlertwo
Do you know yet if Family Matters going to feature the MC’s child, or if it will feature a new character?

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That is not certain, and I don’t know how much spoiling people would want for that anyhow. I am 100% sure the child would show up. In what capacity, not so sure. At one point I thought they could be your spouse, that way your own MC would be your in-law. But no, that’s just too bizarre, even for me. Another thought is more of an extended cameo than a major focus.

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Are you going to include a college exam bribery scene or trying to get your child admitted on a sports scholarship even if they are non-sports children?

:wink:

Is that taking too much from today’s American politics? :lock_with_ink_pen:

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Ha, you won’t have that kind of dough, especially when I go back soon and finagle the money stat.

Nobody wants to get me started about this sort of thing. Higher education, what a massive scam anyhow. FYI, trade school is an option in this game. Not a bad one, either.

Edit: I am tempted to throw a thing in there to catch up hackers that artificially boost the money stat, so they get to the end of the game without issue and the kid ends up a disgrace because you go to jail for embezzling.

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I had a couple suggestions. In the year 13 nephew/niece scene, would it be plausible (for high Education children) that the child actually was studying (working ahead or something)? Would that change the parent’s blackmail into a bribe (ex. If you comfort him/her, you get a holiday from chores)?
Also, I would like an option to send the kid to summer school even if they passed the diorama event. They need a head start on foreign languages/advanced math/ advanced science!
Also, do you think Edgewick would offer bilingual lessons at the elementary level ( higher-end schools in my area do that)?

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I would have to reread that bit from Niece to See You Again to see if that would work, but possibly. I would have to see how much rewriting the summer school scene needs, since at least some of it assumes that the kid trucked up to get there. Not a guarantee of doability but at least worth a look. As for early language stuff, I doubt it. It’s not going to be a major gameplay component, just a small thing to maybe help their future employability or something.

New chapter is officially the first to cross the 10k mark, at 10700 and going strong. Friggin’ trip.

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Kind of similar thought- would it be at all possible to implement a bilingual parent? Like, I know while this isn’t implicitly set in any specific location, it does feel very Western at least, but many parents were raised to speak another language, or have a language that isn’t English as their native tongue. I know for myself, I was raised in a household where we spoke three languages commonly. Could having the parent speak another language and raise their child with it ever be done? Or would it affect all the years growing up- thereby being too big of a change to implement?

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I’m new to this forum, but registered just to post this. Sorry if this isn’t the right place!
I was really enjoying reading through this until I got to a certain part about the dog. The choice was to have your child take over training, take the dog to obedience school, or discipline the dog yourself. I chose doing it myself, assuming it meant training the dog, but it had me HIT the dog! I felt physically sick and immediately quit the game. I don’t feel like that result was AT ALL CLEAR from the choice text. “Discipline” doesn’t mean “hit”! :frowning:

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Wow. I will be honest, I did not expect that reaction. While physical discipline has fallen out of fashion with our mini-humans (my own included), I guess I just assumed that the predominant form of potty training for dogs still involved a rolled-up newspaper or the equivalent.

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