Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream - The Complete Guide To Babies And Age Settings
Trying to raise a functional digital child while managing an island full of chaotic adults will absolutely test your patience.
You spend weeks playing matchmaker, forcing two stubborn residents to go on dates, and successfully navigating the stressful proposal mini-game. They finally get married and move into their own house. You think the hard part is over. Then the phone rings, and they ask if they should have a baby. Now before you waste your time mindlessly clicking through menus without understanding the commitment, you need to know that adding children to your island completely changes the social dynamic. You are suddenly thrust into a bizarre parenting simulator where you have to soothe screaming infants and eventually decide their fate.
If you want to read up on how to actually get your Miis to the altar first, or just want to browse the rest of my strategies, check out the full Tomodachi Life hub.
The Prerequisites For Parenthood
You cannot just spawn a baby out of thin air. The absolute hard requirement here is marriage. Two Miis must be romantically involved and fully committed before the game even considers giving them a child.
Navigating The Marriage Hurdle
If your residents are constantly fighting instead of falling in love, you have a major compatibility issue. I highly recommend referencing my guide on how to get married to force them down the aisle. Once they tie the knot and move into the Mii Homes area, it becomes a waiting game. Eventually, one of the parents will call you with a pink heart bubble and directly ask if you think having a baby is a good idea. Always say yes.
The Demo Version Block
I need to point this out because it causes a lot of confusion. If you are still playing the free demo version of Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream, you are entirely locked out of the generational mechanics. You can arrange romantic relationships, but the progression hard stops before marriage. To see the baby events, you have to buy the full retail release.
The Arrival And The Toddler Grind
A few days after giving them your blessing, you will get another call. The baby has arrived, and the parents want your input on the details.
Choosing A Gender And Traits
You are given three choices for the newborn: a boy, a girl, or a randomized option. The baby will automatically inherit physical characteristics from both parents, usually resulting in a hilarious mashup of their facial features. This new resident is permanently added to your island population count, which helps you reach the milestones I outlined in my guide covering money, shops, and island size.
Surviving The Crying Phase
This is where the game becomes genuinely annoying. Babies cry constantly. The parents are entirely incompetent and will repeatedly call you to come over and fix the problem. You are forced into a motion control mini-game where you have to rock the console or tap the screen to play peekaboo. If you move too fast, the baby screams louder. You just have to endure this tedious loop for several days to push the child through its growth stages.
Age Restrictions And The Kid-O-Matic
Once the child grows up, or when you are creating brand new residents from scratch, you have to manage their age settings. The game treats adults and children very differently.
The Under 18 Ruleset
Any Mii set to the age of 17 or younger is classified as a child. This restricts their interactions heavily. Children cannot romance adult Miis, and their daily routines often look completely different. If you want a diverse island, you need a mix of both age groups. If you want to force a resident to stay young forever, you can go into their profile settings and toggle the option that prevents them from aging naturally.
Reversing Time With Items
Sometimes you create an adult and realize they would fit your island dynamic much better as a kid. The Wishing Fountain economy occasionally rewards you with an item called the Kid-O-Matic. Handing this to an adult instantly shrinks them down and reclassifies them as a child.
Managing Birthdays And Events
The calendar year matters heavily for your residents. When you initially create a Mii, you are prompted to enter their birthday. Leaving it blank is an option, but filling it out gives you access to specific annual events.
The Birthday Celebration
When a Mii's birthday rolls around, their friends will throw them a party in their apartment. If it is your specific birthday, the entire island gathers in the plaza to sing to you, and the game gifts you a unique Birthday Cake item. It is a nice little touch that breaks up the standard daily grind. If you realize you entered the wrong date, you can always go back and fix it using the methods I detailed in my walkthrough on how to edit, delete, and change Mii names.
Why You Should Not Skip Days
If you miss a birthday, your first instinct will be to manipulate the system clock to go back in time. Do not do this. I cannot stress this enough. I wrote an entire guide on the severe time travel penalties that freeze your shops and ruin your economy. It is far better to just wait until next year than to break your island over a missed piece of digital cake.
The Final Decision
After about a week of dealing with the crying mini-games, the child will reach full adulthood. The parents will call you one last time to make the most important decision of the entire lifecycle. You have to choose whether the grown child moves into a vacant apartment to become a permanent resident, or if you send them off the island to travel the world via the StreetPass network.
Sending them away triggers the official ending sequence I detailed in my guide on trophies, the ending, and travel tickets. If you choose to keep them, they become a standard adult resident, free to start the entire chaotic romance cycle all over again.
