Working
Make all your adult Sims have a job. Teenage Sims can get jobs too, but keep in mind that they will be stressed after school and will also need to find the time to do their homework.
When your Sims are at work, choose the 'Work Hard' option. This will make your Sims become stressed quickly unless they have the 'Workaholic' trait, so once they get the 'Stressed' or 'Overworked' moodlet, have them either talk to their co-workers or slack off for a while. Slacking off will, however, lower their job performance and can possibly get them fired.
Have your Sims earn promotions quickly. Make sure that your Sims are in a good mood before they leave for work, and make sure to work on the skills required for the job as well. (For example, if your Sim has a career in science, have your Sim work on the 'gardening' skill.) Try to get a promotion in 2 work days.
Make a decent house. Start off in a starter home with 1 or 2 Sims, female or male. Then, once you get enough money from your job to add a kids' room, make it a nursery at first, unless you are adopting a child.
Having a child
Have one female and one male Sim who already have an existing relationship (boyfriend/girlfriend or higher) try for a baby. The most common way is in a bed by having them both 'relax' and then clicking the other Sim and the 'try for baby' option. Make sure your sound is up so that you can listen for a jingle. If you hear a jingle, then your Sim is pregnant but she doesn't know it yet. The next day, depending what time you tried for baby, she will know she's pregnant and get the 'Pregnant!' moodlet.
While your Sim is pregnant, do everything you can to improve the pregnancy. Read the two pregnancy books 'Totally Preggers: An expecting mother's tale,' and 'Baby Incoming: Preparing With Vigilance,' and seek medical advice at the hospital. It also helps to find a doctor (In Sunset Valley, go to Jamie Jolina) and ask for advice.The harder you try for a smooth pregnancy, the more likely it will be that you get to choose it's traits. Though it is not a guarantee, have the mother eat 3 watermelons to improve the chances of having a girl, and three apples to improve the chances of having a boy.
Once the baby is born, give it good traits (e.g., Friendly, Good, Excitable, Good sense of humor). It is also beneficial to give it traits like "Workaholic" or specific job traits like "Handy" or "Good Cook" to prepare for future careers. Bring it home and feed it play with it, snuggle it, and interact with it so you and your baby are best/good friends. Make sure the bar is all the way up on their relationship bar. Put him/her in the crib afterwards if he/she is tired. If not, keep interacting with him/her.
Always make sure he/she is in a good mood all the time. If he/she is hungry feed him/her, and if she/he has a dirty diaper change him/her. Never hire a babysitter; they make things worse. For example, they often turn the stereo on while the baby is trying to sleep, or randomly take the baby out of the crib and put them back while ignoring the fact that they are hungry/their nappy is dirty. After all of this, you will have to pay the babysitter money for his/her poor care.
The baby stage does not do much for a child's development, so if you want to, go ahead and buy a birthday cake and make the child age up into a toddler. You do not want to age up any child prematurely unless it is a baby --> toddler transition.
Toddlers
Make sure you have a high chair and a toy box now because you have a toddler! You can keep the nursery the same but make sure it has toys in it. More important than a toy box are the blocks and xylophone. Make sure the toddler gains all the skills from these toys and it will help them later in life, when they become children and eventually adults.
As stated earlier, for babies, never hire a babysitter. Never leave your child alone. If you are going out for a short while, you will be forced to hire a babysitter, but keep in mind that you must only go out for a short time, or you will come back to an unhappy baby. Now give him/her more attention so the baby is happy.
Make them eat meals like waffles in the food mixer for toddlers (generations) and making food. Serve them food instead of feeding them baby food. This is optional. If you have Generations, it's smarter to use that if you don't just use baby food! It will make them happy! Try serving them their favorite food for best results, but if you need to hurry, serve them baby food or a bottle.
Read books to your toddler. You can buy them at the bookstore or borrow them at the library. These will aid in skill development. Read them until you get the notification that says "X has learned all he/she can from X. They'll still enjoy reading it again, however!"
Walking, Talking, Potty Training
Here comes a part of every Sim's life: teaching toddlers. Teach them the basic stuff like talking, then walking and then potty training.
Talking! Make sure your toddler is in a good mood so you won't have to stop and waste time feeding/changing diapers. Go to the parent's profile and click the toddler, then click 'learn to talk.' Keep going until a comment comes up saying "(name) just learned to talk! Next up: teaching (name) to stop talking!" Another way to tell if you're done is watching the blue bar above your toddler's head. Once it fills up times, you're done.
Walking! This is pretty much the same as teaching your toddler how to talk. Let your toddler sleep in between learning how to talk and walk so you don't have to stop in the middle.
Potty training. Make sure you have a potty chair (in the kids section). It doesn't matter if they don't have to go to the bathroom. Just put them on there! Do this multiple times. Every once in a while, you will have to stop and empty the potty chair, otherwise it will overflow.
Children
Finally! No more teaching, feeding or changing diapers. Those days are gone but you still need a good relationship with your child! Make sure they are now best friends. If you've taught your toddler all the necessary things they need to know, you'll be able to pick another trait for the child. If not, the game will randomly assign your child one. Give them another good trait.
Make sure your child goes to school every day. Also make sure your child completes his/her homework on time and goes to school in a good mood.
Give them a bed! Change their room up! They're too old for a crib now and are ready to sleep in a big kid bed.
Make sure they take advantage of the opportunities provided to them, and try to keep them on the honor roll. Hanging out with friends is a great thing for them to do, but make sure they complete their homework.
Teens
Make sure your teens go to school every day in a good mood and complete their homework on time, just like when they were children. Don't worry: unless you lock them in a room, cancel the 'go to school' action, block all the doors that lead outside, or do something else that gets in their way of going to school, they will go automatically.
Have friends! Have a lot of friends and maybe even a boy/girlfriend? You can go to prom with him/her, but only in the Generations expansion pack.
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