Set Parent Fix Cheat (Preview)
20.04.2026 Minor Update: Fixed a couple of strings in the Russian translation. Added the French translation link (Thanks, Hope!). The mod is now version 1.0.3
18.04.2026 UPDATE: Fixes for the Adoption and the Unknown parents game bugs and the new cheat 'Remove Adoption Relationship'! Read the details in the post.
I tested this update on some very complicated family trees, and it worked perfectly, even without using the MCCC relationship cheats. I'm so relieved!
The Problems
The 1.121 patch modified the entire genealogy system. Unfortunately, we now have very little freedom to define relationships between Sims. However, it is still possible to set someone to be a parent of another Sim. I do that myself with MCCC relationship cheats. Otherwise, it would be impossible for me to move to the new save.
However, there are situations when MCCC (or the game itself) prohibits adding a parent-child relationship. The most common case is when you assign one parent from a married couple but can't assign the second parent because the Sims are stacked with the "stepson/stepdaughter" status.
Sometimes, the Adoption status appears even when no adoption has occurred.
Additionally, you may see strange "Unknown" parents where they shouldn't appear.
Furthermore, you may encounter a bug that prevents you from assigning parents to parentless siblings.
The biggest problem is that we can no longer delete parent-child relationships. That's why I wrote this mod.
Set Parent Cheat
With testingcheats enabled, shift-click on any Sim of the active household for whom you want to set a parent. This option is only available if a Sim has one parent or no parents. It counts only the valid parents, so you still can apply the cheat, if the Sim has some weird 'Unknown' parents.
Then, just choose a Sim and confirm the action.
Once it's applied, don't enter CAS, don't travel and don't switch households, instead save the game (I advise you to do that with the 'Save as' function to easily revert changes) and select the newest save slot! Otherwise, the game may restore the old relations.
You can save and re-enter that after using the cheat on all the Sims in your active household. It's not mandatory to re-enter the game after updating each Sim.
The result is persistent and the relationship is updated everywhere. And yes, even if you reenter the game. Additionally, starting with version 1.0.2, the cheat automatically clears the stacked adoption status.
Remove Adoption Relationship Cheat
I added the cheat to manually clear the adoption status for Sims whose parent relationship wasn't set or was set before this update.
If a child or parent has the "Adoption" status (even one-sided), you can press Shift and click on the child. Then, select the "Remove Adoption Relationship" cheat in the "Parents" category. This will make them regular parents and children with no adoption status.
After that, save the game (I recommend using "Save As" too) and re-enter the save. You can save and re-enter that after using the cheat on all the Sims in your active household. It's not mandatory to re-enter the game after updating each Sim.
Warning!
Note that the adoption cheat cannot be applied to invalid Sims. For example, if the adoption status is applied to siblings or other relatives, or if they have the adoption status but not the parent status. This means they are severely broken, and you must fix their main relationships first using the "Set Parent" cheat.
One more thing to keep in mind, regardless of whether you use this mod: don't create situations where the Sim has one biological parent and one adopted parent if the adopted parent has a partner who is not the biological parent. The family tree will sync, and the biological parent can be replaced by the partner of the adopted parent.
Due to the issue above, even if another parent adopted the child, they would become the regular parent. The same goes for the 'Set Parent' cheat. This must be done to resolve all underlying issues. I suppose it's more important.
Check the compatibility status HERE
REQUIRED
CONFLICTS
None
TRANSLATION
Russian by me
French translation link by Hope
INSTALLATION
Remove the old version and unzip the archive in the Mods no deeper than one subfolder! The mod now has the 1.0.3 version.
F.A.Q.
No cheat on the sim?
You didn't install Lot51 Core Library correctly
You didn't enabled testingcheats
You didn't Shift + click on the sim
This sim already has two parents
There are no available Sims for the parent role. For Sims from baby to teen, the parent should be at least a young adult. For young adults and adults, the parent should be an adult or elder. The teen can be a parent for Sims from baby to child, if you play with teen pregnancy enabled. For elders, the parent must be an elder. The Sims do must not be blood-related; the selected parent cannot be the target's stepchild (but a stepparent is fine). They can also be in-laws, but the game may prohibit the romantic relationship between this Sim and their partner (unless you have mods that enable it).
You assigned a wrong parent?
This cannot be reverted, but you can quit the game without saving and reenter, or just use the previous save slot
Have the relations only been updated on the parent and their child, but not on the descendants?
Make sure you have the 1.0.3 version
Save the game to a new slot and re-enter it (don't go into CAS or switch households before doing so). Only then will the game rebuild the family graph
The game restored the old relations?
Make sure you have the 1.0.3 version
You probably didn't save the game to a new slot or reenter the game. Use the cheat again and select the "Save as" option. Then, go to the main menu and enter the new slot
You have the Adoption status somewhere?
Use the 'Remove Adoption Relationship' cheat, read the details in the section of this cheat
If you encounter something that I didn't explain here, give me the details, especially what the log file in the mod folder says!
DOWNLOAD
HERE (18.04 in Public)
P.S. I can only help if you provide me with the details of any issues you are experiencing. Read THIS before writing a bug report (via the link below, not in the comments section).
Contact me | Buy me a Coffee | Bug Report | Mod Status Sheet
Comments (21)
Thank you. I have been trying to fix my wonked Family Tree for ages. Maybe this will do the trick
heyy, I'm sorry to bother English is not my first language so I'm not sure that I will be able to explain what is happening to me but I'll give it a shot, so basically I did everything I needed to do (I think) but I still can add only one parent the other one stays an unknown parent and the sim I wanted to be the parent I've been written as stepmom and I don't know to change this
Hi, can you write me how can I contact you? Unfortunately, Patreon doesn't let me to DM free members and unsubscribed users. There are few things I have to investigate, and it will require you sending me some logs for each test
Thank you so much for this mod- you are a life saver. I started a new save after dealing with save corruption and imported a couple of hundred sims into it from old saves, but after the update to family trees it was no longer possible to use MCCC to reconstruct family relationships like we used to. I had the persistent bug of being able to add one parent but not both to sims, and your mod gave me the ability to fix so many families. Thank you so much!
You're welcome! I'm happy too that my mod helps many simmers 🤗
Hi there, thank you for this mod! It is the only way I have been able to set a second parent for my sims. But I noticed an issue with the family tree: While I was able to successfully set 2 parents for all of my sims with this mod (the parents being a married couple), in the family tree it now looks like the mother had that child with an unknown sim and the father also had that child with an unknow sim (so essentially 4 parents, the 2 actual ones and 2 unknown ones). For context, I created 7 siblings in CAS, and later created a married couple in CAS and set them as the parents for all children after I placed them all on a lot. Do you know if there is a way to fix the family tree issues or why the unknow sims are still there in my tree, making it broken and confusing?
Thank you so much for this mod! I put in a bug report on this last week because it's so stupid. I was wondering if it's possible to enter CAS with the sim once parentage is assigned? Or will it revert back to household member once you go into CAS? I edit my sims as they age so was wondering if it was still possible without interfering with the mod.
Hi and thank you! If you mean entering CAS with my cheat applied, then no problem, you can do that freely once you saved and re-entered the game. I mean in the post just don't enter CAS without saving and re-entering the game first
Had to extend Early Access because more cases need to be tested on the released update. God, you can't even imagine how much I hate this family tree service
do you think we'd still be able to set as parent through CAS? Or are you talking more about if they're in another household?
No, it doesn't matter if they're in the same household or not. From the 1.121 patch the genealogy tracker synchronizes automatically and you can't force it to do something else manually. So if your sims get the adopt parent - child relationship, you can't change it through CAS too, because you can't add the family relationship if another one already exists. This mod just adds the parent relationship above the incorrect one, what calls the genealogy tracker to recalculate things. And as it sees the parent relationship, it removes other family relationships.
Thank you! I was just having this issue and couldn’t figure out why.
You're welcome! So bothersome bugs we have to play with ;(
Hi there! I was wondering if there's a fix for the issue in my current save. I have a couple (F+F) who were romantically involved, no parents. They had a few kids together. Then out of nowhere, the game turned the couple into siblings. This occurred prior to that ungodly update and patch that wrecked saves. When I tell you, the family tree is all MUCKED UP! Lines crisscrossing each other like a subway map. I tried all kinds of fixes to no avail, incl MCCC and creating parents for each. Nothing worked. I am 5 gens in and don't want to lose that save but I am thinking that I may have to start a new save. Is there a fix for that?
I had this happen and I had to use MCCC to copy and paste my old sims on to random ones and make them a new relationship. I lost milestones and whatnot but I did get to "keep them" for the most part.
Would this work with pets? For some reason, all of my new puppies lately show no parents. Parents have no relationship to their offspring at all. It’s so annoying 🙄
I'm not sure, they fixed something about pets on the 1.122 patch. Probably, something else affected. Which game version you have?
omg i literally was just complaining about this issue yesterday! you just saved my new save!!
You're welcome! I was complaining the day before the mod release too 😅
can't download it because it shows i have to upgrade to see the post. but it looks like a fun mod!
It's in Early Access for now, because it requires testing. It will be released in Public on 14th April