Part 3: Caring for a Child

Part 3: You’ve Got to Be Kidding

The hard work of caring for a child is soon learned and cherished.

Now that you have one or two children in your home, a number of additional benefits and tasks present themselves. Here’s what to look for:

Resting Bonus: A Parent’s Love

Assuming you’re not a vampire or werewolf (who crave sustenance via other means), sleep in the house where your children live to receive the Father’s Love (male adventurers) and Mother’s Love (female adventurers). This is in addition to any other “Rested” bonuses you may also receive.

The Gift of Charity

If you give your child an allowance or gift (see below), you receive the Gift of Charity blessing, just as if you had given a coin to a beggar. This is in addition to any other effects the gift may have.

Your Child’s Basic Behaviors

Unless you choose to give your child some orders, which supersede these antics, your child makes him or herself at home in your dwelling in a variety of ways: They spend their mornings around the house, sweeping, reading, practicing their instruments, and exploring their new home. After lunch, they go outside and play until dinnertime. In the evenings, if you’ve given your child a weapon and your house has a practice dummy, they often spar with it. If your child has a doll, they may play with it, too.

Giving Orders: Basic Discipline

When you begin a conversation with your child, you can “request” that he or she follow one particular order. When that order is given, the child obeys it for three hours or until you give them another one. Sometimes, if the order isn’t something your child wants to do (such as “chores”), expect a small tantrum or whine. You can relent or insist they complete the task you’ve given them.

The orders you have available and how they are carried out (along with their priorities) are as follows:

1. Go Outside: Available from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., if the child is in the house. The child leaves the house and plays outside.

2. Go Inside: Available whenever the child is not in the house. The child heads back inside and mopes around.

3. Do Your Chores: Available from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The child begins a sweeping regimen throughout the house.

4. Go to Bed: Available from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., if the child is not already asleep. The child goes to sleep in their bed.

Giving Orders: Games

All work and no play may make your child more prone to tantrums, so it’s important to play games with them. This is one of the conversation options and works as follows:

• Ask them if they want to play a game. If this occurs at night, your child asks if this is really okay.
• Then you can choose either a game of tag or hide-and-seek.
• Follow the Miscellaneous Objective prompts and watch out; if other children are present, they can get roped into the game, too!
• Asking your child to play a game cancels anything else they are doing; this order has the highest priority. However, once the game is under way, giving your child another order ends the game.

Giving Gifts

Children are happiest when they’re preoccupied, ideally with a gift you’ve picked up on your travels. Such items include:

• Children’s weapons (daggers or the wooden sword)
• Children’s clothes (these are gender-specific miscellaneous items)
• Children’s books (yellow book of riddles, etc.)
• Children’s toys (a doll)
• Sweets (such as a sweetroll or taffy)

Such items are mostly found in shops, though you may find them in cupboard or other containers on your travels. If you’re searching for a gift you want to give your child with some urgency, try the following:

• Most general goods vendors and miscellaneous containers (such as cupboards) have a chance of having a wooden sword, doll, or children’s clothes.
• If you visit Radiant Raiment in Solitude, Endarie always has a complete set of children’s clothes in stock.
• Visit any of the three Khajiit Caravans if you want to buy a wooden sword, doll, or children’s clothes.

When you return and give the gift to your child (through conversation), he or she reacts differently depending on the type of gift:

• Weapons: They take it immediately (any previously equipped weapon is placed in their bedroom chest). If you have a practice dummy in your house, they run off to spar with it immediately and practice for about an hour. This sparring practice becomes a part of their evening routine.
• Clothing: They wear it immediately, and their former clothing is placed in their bedroom chest.
• Dolls (girls only): Boys aren’t interested in this gift. Your girl plays with the doll for about an hour. It reappears from time to time as a basic behavior as your girl plays with it.
• Books: The book is placed in their bedroom chest.
• Food: If you hand over some food, they eat it immediately.

Regardless of the gift you hand over, you’re rewarded the Gift of Charity blessing: +10 to Speech for one hour.

Your Child’s Bedroom Chest

Your child keeps their belongings in a bedroom chest or dresser, which over time fills with items they’ve collected or that you’ve given them. You can take whatever you wish from this chest. The child’s own items tend to be rudimentary (but sometimes rare) ingredients, small trinkets, and occasionally a valuable [random] item. The quality of their trinkets and the chance of finding a valuable item increases based on the value of the gifts you’ve given them.

Check this chest once every five days so it keeps refilling. If you move to a different home, your child will start a new collection there (any items in the chest in your old home remain there).

Returning Home and Other Antics

After a particularly arduous quest, returning home to your child (and perhaps your spouse) should be a joy. Or at least a passable way to continue your existence before you’re inevitably slain by bandits. Upon your return, expect your child to be eager to interact with you in one of the following (usually randomly determined) ways:

Thanks for Adopting Me!: Your child rushes in to say hello and thanks you for adopting him or her.

Thanks for Adopting Me, Look What I Found!: Your child rushes in to greet you, thanks you for adopting them, and then tells you there’s a few items they’ve collected in their bedroom chest. You can take one or all of them if you’d like.

Look What I Found!: Your child rushes in to tell you he or she has been collecting items and has placed them in their bedroom chest. You can take any of them if you want.

Can We Keep Him?: If your family doesn’t already have an animal companion, and you haven’t previously banned them and you bring home an animal companion, your child may ask if they can keep the animal when you don’t need it. Consult the Hearthfire Pets section below for more details.

It Followed Me Home!: If your family doesn’t already have a pet and you haven’t previously banned them, there’s a chance that your child is waiting for you with a small animal. Your child asks if they can keep it. Consult the Hearthfire Pets section below for more details.

Mudcrabs are smarter than you!: If you have two children, when you arrive home, your children may be calling each other names. If you don’t intervene, the argument ends with both children beginning a game of tag. Speak to either child to:

• Break up the argument.
• Order the child you’re speaking with to their room.
• Or back off and let the argument continue. The more aggressive child always wins the argument, just like Braith does when she harangues Lars in Whiterun.

You Smell Like a Hagraven!: If you have two children, when you arrive home, they may be calling each other names. If you don’t intervene, the argument ends with one of the children running off and crying. They head to their room for an hour. You can:

• Break up the argument.
• Order the child you’re speaking with to their room.
• Or back off and let the argument continue.

Can I Have My Allowance?: Your child may run up to you and ask for money. Respond to this mini-shakedown by handing over some of your current gold, which can range from nothing all the way up to 1,000 coins. Any gold is added to your child’s personal collection and will raise the value of any items they subsequently find and gift to you.

If you give your child one or more gold, you receive the Gift of Charity blessing. If you fail to give your child any money on three consecutive occasions, the next present they get you may be especially disappointing. They’ve come to the conclusion that your family is poor, and hand over some beggar’s clothing. The cheek of it!

I Got You a Present!: Your child may dash up to you and hand over a gift they’ve found or bought for you. There’s a small [10 percent] chance you’ll receive two of the same item. The value of the item depends on the child’s personal funds: The larger their allowance, the better the items they get for you. The value of these gifts is also deducted from their savings, so don’t expect a one-time allowance to support pricey gifts for long. Over time, this always works out in your favor, so giving your child 30 gold always results in them giving you items worth more than 30 gold.

I Want a Present!: Your child may dash up to you and ask if you’ve brought them a present. You can:

Can We Play a Game?: Your child may dash up to you ask if you want to play a game with them. You can answer yes and begin a game of either tag or hide-and-seek. Or, you can answer no (mentioning the hour if it’s between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.) and your child leaves you feeling a little put out.