Generation 4: Part 13. Hier kommt der Ärger

All of our kids were developing independence which made us so proud. Ivy had only been in school for a few days now and already stayed outside to study in the afternoon. Well, at least that is what she told us. Her grades weren’t really showing that she studied hard, but maybe her studies were just not that effective. For us she still was a responsible kid who learned how to take care of herself, but when she once yelled at us that she only stayed outside to avoid us as long as possible, everything changed at once. Never had we assumed that we were driving one of our kids away and we couldn’t possibly imagine how that could have happened! Whenever one of our kids had a problem, they could come to us and we then tried to solve it. Sure, sometimes when we were stressed out from a long day we would tell them to solve their problems on their own or to come back later, but who didn’t? And apart from that we were really good parents, that we were sure of. Cassie more than one time broke down in tears and I tried to convince her that it was in Ivy’s nature to hurt the people around her, that it really wasn’t our fault. She still believed that we were doing something wrong, but at least I managed to believe myself. She had an evil character and tried to harm us, not the other way round.

While Ivy spend most of her time outside our house (for whatever reasons), Bella took up painting really quick. She did her homework conscientiously and as soon as she was done, she ran outside to the easel and continued working on her pictures. We could tell she was not a natural, but the patience she showed while painting really impressed us. If something didn’t work out, she didn’t stop altogether, but erased what she had just done wrong and started again. This reminded me of my father, who had also been interested in painting. But in contrary to Bella, he had stopped for a couple of weeks whenever something hadn’t looked the way he had wanted it to. It was funny that some of our children had inherited my father’s hair while others had the same hobbies as him.

Grace, Henner and Bella were children we didn’t need to worry about. They did their homework on time, had reasonable friends and didn’t come home late for any reasons. Sure, Grace was alone a great amount of her time, but we had realized that it didn’t matter as long as she was happy. And she obviously was.

Knowing that our kids were doing well, I could really focus on my job and the last promotion I needed so bad. And what can I say – I got it! My boss told me that I had been working like crazy the last days and finally promoted, which meant that my lifetime wish – to reach a certain level in four careers – had been fulfilled! Now I could lean back and watch my children grow up, something I wanted so badly for a long time. A day after the promotion I called my boss and told him I’d quit. Every day was so precious now that I didn’t want to waste it in a stuffy building.

Something I realized pretty late was that we were the only ones Ivy was angry at. She got along great with her older siblings, especially with Bella and Henner. There was some kind of distance between her and Grace, but the other ones liked her a lot. Not knowing why she was acting like this was almost too much to take. But there was nothing we could do about this, since talking didn’t seem to work.

Before we could worry about this some more, it was Grace’s birthday! It was unbelievable that her childhood was already over and that she was aging into a (hopefully) responsible teenager. Was the household getting more organized now or did this mean total chaos and new moods we had to face daily?

Honestly, it didn’t matter to me as soon as I saw her as a teen for the first time. My little girl was absolutely beautiful! There was no way she could have mood swings or anything. She was just perfect.

Her birthday party in the garden was pretty successful – all of us sat together at one big table we had borrowed from a friend and talked for hours. Even Ivy stayed there the entire time and didn’t say anything nasty or disrespectful. We should have birthday parties more often!

Another thing that was great about having a teen in the house, besides her independence: she took care of the other kids as well! Julia had often been neglected by us, which we were really sorry about. But with all the trouble we were going through with Ivy, there was almost no time left for her. Grace cared about her a lot and often was there before us when Julia started crying. The two black-haired girls really had a deep relationship.

When Grace wasn’t busy taking care of her siblings, she kept the house clean. This was something I personally couldn’t understand (because I was absolutely sure that neither I nor my sister Freya had ever been that way), but of course it was nice to see. She kept explaining that she wouldn’t use the dishwasher, because she was afraid that it would flood the house. At first I thought she hated everything technical, but it turned out that she was just afraid of anything damaging the house at all. Sometimes she even seemed a little neurotic to us.

Despite her little flaw she was loved and respected by everybody in the family. I can’t stop talking about Ivy’s behavior, because it was such a big mystery to us – as soon as Grace had aged up, Ivy went to her to talk about things. Grace seemed like some kind of mother to her, which of course hurt Cassie really badly, but I was just glad she was talking to someone about problems instead of doing stupid things.

As I got more and more curious about how my sister was doing, I decided to go over to her house one day. I hadn’t seen her for ages and thought that it would be nice to see what she was up to. Unfortunately she wasn’t there; instead I met my niece Anna, who was about Grace’s age. She seemed really nice, although she kept asking me awkward questions about our financial situation. I guess, she wanted to find out if we could support her a little, since Freya was rather broke. But apart from that our talk went well and I promised to call more often. After all, this was family, too!

Family. A word for something so important, for the most important thing in the world. I was sad to see that Ivy kept ignoring this. Whatever we did or tried, it didn’t work.

And then something changed. I don’t know what it was, maybe that we moved into a new house. That’s right, the old house had just gotten too small for seven people and a dog, so we moved to a house with just one floor, but more rooms. [As usual, I forgot to take a picture of the entire house. I’ll try and remember to take one the next time I’m playing!] All of a sudden Ivy started opening up to us and talked. This was all we were asking for – our daughter talking to us. Of course she had some moody days, but all in all it got a lot better as soon as we had finished our move.

Like I said, everything got better. Grace found new friends in high school and was soon seen with Marissa Pinkerton, her cousin, in all her spare time. They did homework together and they gossiped about boys and girls from their classes. We were so glad to see Grace catching up with the other side of the family and –at the same time – making friends with people their age. For so long she had been on her own, it was time that she found really good friends. After all, we weren’t going to be around forever and it was time that somebody else took care of her.

Author's notes:  Yay, we're getting closer and closer to the point where I'm at! All the kids become more different every day. Bella is interested in painting and helping other people, Grace takes care of her siblings and meets with Marissa daily, Henner is working hard for school and Ivy mostly is nothing but trouble. It if weren't five sims, I would almost like to watch them all interact in the sims world. But I really can't do that ^_^

Chapter title: A German song by the (also German) musician Michy Reincke, the translation means "Here comes trouble". When I read the song title, I immediately thought of Ivy...