Why You Can‘t Age Up Your Kid Sims in The Sims 4 (And How to Fix It)

As an avid Simmer, few things are more frustrating than eagerly watching your toddler or child Sim grow up, only to find they stay perpetually stuck at the same age. If your attempts to transition that energetic toddler into a temperamental child or angsty teen have failed, this aging guide covers some common reasons why you can‘t age up kid life stages in The Sims 4.

Toddlers and Children Spend Set Times in Each Stage

On the default "normal" lifespan, toddlers remain toddlers for 7 days before automatically aging up into children. Then children spend 14 long days developing skills, making friends, attending school, and stressing out their parents before finally transitioning into teenagers on the 15th day.

So if it hasn‘t been at least 7 toddler days or 14 child days, aging might simply not trigger yet while the game keeps them at their current age for realism. For players impatient to progress kid Sims faster, read on for solutions!

Enable Aging in Your Sims Game Settings

Before attempting any aging up, always verify aging is actually turned on for your Sim households. Under Game Options > Gameplay, toggle Auto Age (Played Sims) to On. This enables natural aging progression tied to each life stage‘s duration.

If instead you have aging disabled or paused, child Sims cannot blow out birthday candles or automatically transition to their next ages. No one likes when an entire neighborhood becomes immortal!

Tip: You can separately control aging rates between played and unplayed households if you wish to focus only on your personal Sim families aging naturally.

Use Birthday Cakes for Fun Aging Events

The classic way to trigger aging in the Sims franchise is by having Sims blow out candles on a birthday cake. Make sure to bake a white or chocolate cake and add candles.

Then select the Blow Out Candles interaction and choose which toddler or child Sim you want to age up. They‘ll excitedly blow out the flames while your household cheers "Happy Birthday!" Strings of sparklers will appear as they transition into their upgraded life stage with a soft pop.

To me, the birthday cake method brings a festive and personal touch to each Sim aging up. It reflects real life traditions for marking a child‘s growth into a new stage of development.

Plus, it gives you an opportunity to pick out new traits or aspirations complementing their evolving personalities as teens or young adults. What‘s not to love about cake and candles triggering the march of time?

Pro Tip: If your adult Sims keep autonomously eating the cake before kids can blow out candles, lock the cake door for select Sims temporarily.

Cheat to Trigger Age Transitions

If aging breaks despite your best efforts or you simply want to manually override the duration for realism, use aging cheats!

Here are the step-by-step directions:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + C to open the cheat console.

2. Type testingcheats on and hit enter to enable cheats.

3. Either shift-click your toddler/child Sim or type cas.fulleditmode to access the debug menu.

4. Select Trigger Age Transition.

This will immediately force the game to progress your stubbornly persistent toddler into the child life state or graduate a waiting child into their awkward teenage years. The aging sparklers will confirm the cheat took effect!

For players frustrated by glitchy aging in The Sims 4, I highly recommend memorizing the cheat code process. Some packs like Parenthood also have extra triggering factors covered next.

Meet All Toddler Skill Milestones First

The base game happily lets you age toddlers at whatever skill level. But for Simmers also owning the Parenthood Game Pack, your little ones must hit sufficient development levels before growing up.

Specifically, Parenthood requires toddlers max out thinking, movement, imagination, potty, and communication to Level 3 before their aging unlocks. This understandably trips up some players when an otherwise fully-matured toddler fails to blow out candles. But simply keep training any immature skills!

Personally, gating transitions on meeting childhood milestones adds meaningful realism. Just like real parents, it teaches Sim parents to actively teach life lessons preparing tot Sims before the more complex childhood phase, lending a nice developmental touch.

In any case, check for fully green happy skill bars before puzzledly Googling "Sims 4 age up glitch."

I hope this thorough guide covered all the reasons you might be scratching your head on aging up stuck toddlers and children. Let me know down below if you have any other Sims 4 aging issues or questions!