Growing Pains (Updated 9/5/25) - Optional EPs

Mod Description

Growing up is hard, and going through phases may make it a little harder.

Inspired by the phases system from The Sims 4: Parenthood, this mod aims to make younger sims’ personalities more dynamic.

This is a script mod that can be placed in your Packages folder. It was built and tested on 1.69 but should work fine on 1.67.

Updates

9/5/25

• Required expansion packs are now optional.

Requirements

To access all of the phases available with this mod, the following expansions are required:

• The Sims 3: Late Night
• The Sims 3: Generations
• The Sims 3: Showtime
• The Sims 3: Supernatural
• The Sims 3: University Life

Overview

• Phases System
• List of Phases
• New Moodlets

Phases System

Toddlers, children, and teens can now experience phases that change their personality.

Phases are moodlets that temporarily change one of a sim’s traits. Phase moodlets last for 2 days, with a 48 hour cooldown between the end of their most recent phase and when a sim is able to experience a phase again.

Each time a toddler, child, or teen sim wakes up, they will have a chance of experiencing a phase. The base chance of experiencing a phase is 20%, but this chance can increase or decrease by 5% based on the factors/moodlets listed below:

Increased Chance

- Witnessed Divorce
- Witnessed Death
- Witnessed Betrayal
- Heartbroken
- Stuff Taken
- Stir Crazy
- Abducted by Aliens
- Embarrassed
- Lost a Friend
- Negative Mood
- Has Enemy
- In Trouble (Generations punishment system)
- Stress Moodlets (Stressed, Strained)
- Has No Friends Outside of Household
- Adult Household Member Dislikes Children
- Negative Relationship with Adult Household Member
- Negative Prom Moodlets (Ditched, Got in a Fight, Denied)
- Negative Celebrity Moodlets (Got Recognized Negative, Publicly Disgraced)
- Negative Job Moodlets (Overworked, Fired)
- Negative Social Moodlets (Lonely, Desolate, It’s Like I’m Invisible, Misunderstood, Need to Brood, Rejected)
- Negative Romance Moodlets (Rejected First Kiss, Betrayed, Dumped by Text, Rejected by Ex)
- Punishment Moodlets (Got in Trouble, Got Put in Timeout, Privilege Revoked, Grounded, Prank Backfire, Caught Pranking, Caught After Curfew, Detention)

Decreased Chance

- Has Friend Outside Household
- Friends with Adult Household Member
- Adult Household Member Has Positive Family Trait (Family Oriented, Nurturing)

List of Phases

There are a total of 28 phases total, with 5 available to toddlers, 21 available to children, and 28 available to teens. Once a phase is available, it will carry over into the next life stage. The phase names and the traits they add to sims are listed below:

Toddlers

• Messy Phase (Slob)
• Irritable Phase (Grumpy)
• Certified Outdoor Hater Phase (Hates the Outdoors)
• Restless Phase (Light Sleeper)
• Clumsy Phase (Clumsy)

Children

• Mean Streak Phase (Mean Spirited)
• Distant Phase (Loner)
• Clingy Phase (Shy)
• Rebellious Phase (Rebellious)
• Self-Absorbed Phase (Diva)
• Sticky Fingers Phase (Kleptomaniac)
• *Emotional Phase (Over Emotional)
• Ill-Mannered Phase (Inappropriate)
• Quick Temper Phase (Hot-Headed)
• Anxious Phase (Neurotic)
• Fearful Phase (Coward)
• Lazy Phase (Couch Potato)
• Erratic Phase (Insane)
• Stoic Phase (No Sense of Humor)
• Daydreamer Phase (Absent Minded)
• Devious Phase (Evil)

*Shown in preview photos.

Teens

• Loser Phase (Loser)
• Materialistic Phase (Snob)
• Emo Phase (Brooding)
• Childish Phase (Childish)
• Prudish Phase (Unflirty)
• Noncommittal Phase (Commitment Issues)
• Cringe Phase (Socially Awkward)

New Moodlets

There are 28 new moodlets, one for each phase, and all of them last for 2 days and have no effect on a sim’s mood.

Tuning

All of the following values are tunable in the mod’s XML files.

(In percentage; 1 = 100%)
kBaseChanceForPhase = 0.20
kRomanceRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kWitnessedDivorce = 0.05
kWitnessedDeath = 0.05
kWitnessedBetrayal = 0.05
kHeartbroken = 0.05
kPromRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kJobRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kCelebrityRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kPunishmentRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kStuffTaken = 0.05
kStirCrazy = 0.05
kAbductedByAliens = 0.05
kEmbarrassed = 0.05
kLostAFriend = 0.05
kSocialRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kStressRelatedNegativeMoodletImpact = 0.05
kTeenMoodSwing = 0.05
kNegativeMood = 0.05
kHasEnemy = 0.05
kInTrouble = 0.05
kHasNoFriendsOutsideHousehold = 0.05
kAdultHouseholdMemberDislikesChildren = 0.05
kNegativeRelationshipWithAdultHouseholdMember = 0.05
kAdultHouseholdMemberHasPositiveFamilyTrait = 0.05
kFriendsWithAdultHouseholdMember = 0.05
kHasFriendOutsideHousehold = 0.05

(In minutes)
kPhaseLengthInMinutes = 1440

(In days)
kPhaseCoolDownTimeDays = 2

Conflicts & Known Issues

Because this mod temporarily changes a sim’s traits, your sim may become unclickable if you also have Branndo10’s DrugLord mod installed at the same time. (Thank you to MonocoDoll for the heads up!)

Otherwise, there shouldn’t be any conflicts.

Credits

EA/Maxis for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, Visual Studio 2019, ILSpy, s3pe, Notepad++, Script Mod Template Creator, and deathbypufferfish on Tumblr for extracting the TS4 icons.