I just got to the first steps part (love the game so far btw) and I have some questions. How old is the baby at this point? The stat screen says “under one-year old”. I know some babies can start walking before their first birthday but the timeline in the game is kind of fuzzy.
Second, when we get the phone call about the first steps, the first two options are basically “I can’t handle knowing my baby’s walking and I missed it” and the third seems to be “Okay, no big deal”. It’s strange to me that there’s no option to be happy and proud. Is it possible to add that in?
Third, the options for celebrating the first steps. First option “big dinner at their favorite restaurant” I understand (or assume) that this is partly joking, but it makes it look like we skipped over the teething stage and if we pick it there’s nothing saying we didn’t feed our baby a cheeseburger. The third option “I just praise them and leave it at that” seems like it’s meant to be the indifferent/distant option. If we pick it, it says:
“There seems little point in expending a bunch of time and money on a celebration for something that David was always going to do eventually. You do make sure David gets lots of hugs and knows what a good job he has done. He beams at you, soaking up the positive attention.”
I think it’s the “was always going to do eventually” part that’s rubbing me the wrong way. I picked the praise option because showing your child personal affection is always great, but instead it seems like it was the “No big deal, the kid was gonna walk at some point” choice.
EDIT: Could we also get an explanation of the stats? I noticed putting baby gates up transferred points from Freedom to Structure (makes sense) but it also did the same from Traditional into Modern? I’m also a little hazy on how Sacrifice vs Self works.
EDIT2: After potty training we get this sentence: “Of course, you’ve only replaced the diapers with an equally large and expensive box of pull-ups to cover nocturnal emissions.” The phrase “nocturnal emissions” is normally used to refer to nighttime orgasms that may happen after puberty hits (also called wet dreams). I know you meant in case of bedwetting but that sentence is still a bit jarring.
Hmmm…would this be a problem for my main mc here who, in his own career moves up to being an executive?
I mean for all that work I hope it came with a pay rise to that level at least. Of course when getting that promotion it also mentions something about scholarships/tuition for kids of executives…
Then again with my main mc the kid himself is apparently quite the budding young actor and might even start earning more than daddy soon, in spite of the whole executive thing.
So how much financial assistance would my fictional family even need.
Off topic and politically in my opinion, in terms of value for money US College tuition is a blatant scam and a rip-off (Except for maybe the cream of the Ivy-leagues as those degrees open doors even here…but most overpriced US universities don’t get that particular perk)…but then that’s what you get when you consider hardcore neo-libs the “centrists”. Not that Europe isn’t heading in that direction either, just not quite as fast.
In the stats screen, the MC starts with $3000 in the family savings, and adds $300 per year, until promotion 1, which turns that to $500/year, and promotion 2, which further increases to $1000 per year. Since the extracurriculars (allowances, pets, school fees, etc.) draw from the savings instead of the money being added to savings that year (which I think is yearly salary minus non-child-related-expenses), I do not think that it is enough to disqualify the child from any financial aid, even with the VP position. Plus, the salary of the VP also depends on the size of the company; VP of Microsoft means something very different from VP of Small Startup (I think MC’s job is somewhere in between, but closer to “small startup” than “Microsoft”).
Plus, there are many references to the family not being wealthy (the allowance scene can lead to MC explaining to the kid that they are much less wealthy than their friends, the price of the more expensive schools is emphasized, etc.). Even the possible new car in year 16 is described as a strain on finances (and this description doesn’t change with VP MC).
Hmmm…I tend to view this in relative terms, as with moving up in the world, i.e. the VP position it usually also means a higher standard of living and more costs related to keeping up appearances.
Yep, although it could be the mc is an American VP for a big foreign company that is not primarily based in the US, as it still mentions the mc as being one of 30 VP’s (in North America).
Which still makes me think of a reasonably sized bank or financial firm, for some reason.
Anyway with the budding actor kid there’s also the possible payout from the acting gigs to consider.
I mean if the kid lands even a minor but regular role on a popular daytime drama (aka a soap opera) that would likely still disqualify him.
Lastly with the question of financial aid, maybe the family simply doesn’t want it, as it means going to a bureaucratic mess and in a culture like America it indicates you’re poor and dependent, which is the opposite of what most people like to project. And unlike here, in Western Europe there still seems to be some stigma attached to applying for and claiming government benefits in the modern USA.
Therefore if my mc can muddle through he may want to muddle through, rather than go on public record with the government.
Maybe this is an oversight then, or maybe the mc hasn’t been a VP long enough for the wealth to start accumulating. I mean my mc certainly didn’t take the promotions (solely) for fun.
Even if it’s a VP of a moderate-to-large sized company, it could also be a relatively lateral promotion (more work and perks, scholarship access, but only a modest increase in salary).
I do not know how it is in the rest of the US (it is a big country), but my school held several FAFSA nights in early October (when applications open) of last year, in order to walk people through the bureaucracy. There was no stigma attached to going, nor was there any stigma against applying for scholarships, or even against attending community college and then transferring to the local university. @hustlertwo, will there be an option to attend community college and transfer to a local university?
The vast majority of kids will not be actors, though (and if the kid is a one-off extra, they might not make as much as kids with steadier work, let alone enough to surpass the parent). And even with jobs or acting, it doesn’t really push the family out of needing financial assistance.
In a culture like America it also indicates that you value education despite your current means, and having a (college) education is perceived highly. There’s not really a negative projection of the student being poor and dependent due to loans or scholarships – there’s members of congress who have student loans, and having scholarships is usually a matter of prestige for students of every economic background.
Will we find out what their major/minor is? Will the electives chosen in high school (like psychology or macroeconomics) have a a possible influence of what the kid decides to do?
Major and minor, not sure if I will go that granular. Once you graduate it hardly matters anyhow. Unless it is something like business or education, for the most part to the world at large a degree is a degree and it only matters if you have one or not. My brother in law originally was able to climb the ranks at Southwest Airlines because he had a degree…even though he majored in art. Which isn’t exactly relevant.
I should point out partial scholarships may still be available, the ones I detailed were the full ride options. Most government ones won’t cover non-tuition costs and that is what your MC will be swallowing. As well as tuition beyond what the scholarship covers if they go Ivy League.
Donation of the body for research? Construction of a small mausoleum? The burial could also be a single-space burial, or a double-space burial (for future use). Also, holy cow.
I’ve heard that there are people who sometimes donate their bodies to science; those bodies are then used by medical students in their education/curriculum.
Also, if the person’s body in question has some sort of rare medical condition, then physician-scientists sometimes do research on it to gain more knowledge for the aforesaid medical condition.
Oh, there are times when a person donates their healthy organs to hospitals or people who need organ transplants.
On the other hand, there are times when, if the person is a high-ranking official or a national hero, the person’s body is preserved indefinitely for public viewing?
There’s resomation and sky burial. Research was already mentioned.
True, the other time I played it the kid seemed to become an athlete instead.
Seems I may have inadvertently ended up inverting this trope to at least some extent both times.
Highly-selective schools such as the Ivies and their equals tend to be extremely generous with financial aid. The hard part is, of course, getting in.
Of course, there are reasons not to attend the Ivy League schools (they are slowly being beaten by non-Ivy schools of similar caliber in education quality, the Harvard bias against Asian students, the state school is comparable/better in your major, recent scandals, etc.).
Bug found
When I meet up with the absentee parent (father in this case) and ask the kid (boy) if he would like to talk about it, then am diplomatic to the father, the game switches to the birth mother text (calls him Shirley).
Ah, state schools. Glad you mentioned them. Even if our kid doesn’t go to an Ivy, state schools are notorious for giving full ride to kids with a minimum 3.0 or even less (I know in California and Massachusetts it can be as generous as a 2.5, and that’s considering those two states are the best in education right now in the US). Depending on your state and major, certain state schools may even be highly respected. There’s also the option of the 2+2 program, where kids can go to a community college for 2 years at pretty much no cost, and then transfer to a state school for the same price they were paying in community college (or transfer somewhere else and have the boon of not having paid for two years).
Regarding the pet deaths, some of the pets shouldn’t die at ~10 (birds such as macaws can live into their 50s in captivity, the snake species’s average lifespan in captivity is 30 years) unless MC/child are REALLY negligent pet owners (which doesn’t seem to be the case). Even the cat/dog probably would live past year 17 if it was young when MC got it (small dogs also live longer than large dogs on average, indoor cats also tend to live into their late teens/early twenties; people might headcanon their dogs as small and their cats as fully indoor).
