3.17 Trials and Tribulations

When she’d been carrying Charles, Zahra wouldn’t have known she was pregnant if she hadn’t been as big as a whale. Cycl0n3 had made himself far sicker in anticipation than she’d felt herself.

That made this pregnancy a big, unpleasant surprise.

Over and over, she found herself running to the bathroom. She was sick constantly.

And that wasn’t the worst of it.

“Two weeks? I can’t go back to work for two weeks? You have GOT to be kidding! Can’t I just show up? Even if you don’t pay me?”

It was so beyond unfair. Between her unasked-for two days of honeymoon leave and her unasked-for maternity leave, which stacked on top, this child was going to be, well, a child before Zahra was allowed back to work. Zahra was crushed and frustrated. If she wanted to reach her lifetime ambition and reach the top of her career track, she should stop having babies.

(There’s some real-life feminist commentary in here about career and family balance. And, seriously, WTF? Why won’t the game let a character on maternity leave go back to work voluntarily? If you’re very far up on the promotion ladder, four paid working days off translates to a LOT of Sim-calendar time. This is a serious women-only career hit.)

Fabian was overwhelmed and delighted at the prospect of being a father so soon.

And he did the best he could to make it easier on Zahra.

But she felt like crap, and most of the time she couldn’t even handle being touched. Their sex life was a memory.

At least she could take her frustration out on the house and build a few skills that would help her when she finally got back to work.

Fabian, meanwhile, stayed out of Zahra’s way. And he started really paying a lot of attention to the maid, Kate Pistachio. After a couple of days of watching her as she moved around, cleaning their house, he approached her and asked her to meet him downtown.

Um, Fabian, does your WIFE know you’re doing this? The one who’s pregnant with your child?

They talked long into the evening. Fabian really turned up the charm, and soon Kate was telling him her life story.

Which he wrote down for his police report. Turned out their house was being cleaned by a Kleptomaniac with a list of customer complaints as long as your arm. He let her know he’d be watching her. In the nicest way possible.

Whew.

0 thoughts on “3.17 Trials and Tribulations

  1. Oh oh… I'm not sure I like that contact between Fabian and Kate (especially since your writing really sounds a little like there might be something going on in the future…).
    And I completely understand that problem about pregnant women being forced to stay home. I hate that, too. It's just like you wrote it – when their goal is to reach a certain (high) job level and they are constantly sitting around at home, it sucks. The only thing you can do is give them the "Workaholic" trait, then they can work from home on the computer. It takes much, much longer than just regularly going to work, but it's better than nothing… not much though.

    Loved your chapter, enjoyed your writing, liked looking at your pictures – keep on posting 😉

  2. Oh, don't worry about Fabian and Kate. I thought it was amusing that he invited her out to a parking lot after dark to interview her for a police report.

    But, um, don't worry about Fabian and KATE at least. There is drama a-commin'.

  3. I agree about the maternity leave. When my character had twins, the days off DOUBLED, she would have been an elder by the time she was allowed to go back, so I used Twallan's Master Controller to take the number of days down to two. I guess that's kind of like cheating, but I couldn't let her sit around that long…

  4. I have been reading your legacy and it is just great! I thought I would finally comment as well – I know what is it like to play and update in middle of taking care of small kids. I'm also annoyed by the maternity leave. This is 21st century we live in, century where women can go to work and men can take paternity oravaa. It is simply insane.

    Thanks for the great work you have done this far,keep it up! Also I like the short chapters, I mainly read these eron my phone and for some reason it doesn't show all pictures from long posts. Going back to read now, I have a lot to catch up. 🙂

  5. Oh wow. Thanks!

    I play around a lot with the style of the story as I creep through the generations. I ought to give myself points if I finish this thing for playing the same 10-generation legacy through the entire supported lifetime of Sims 3. I am the longest-lasting legacy I've ever met that didn't get abandoned. Heh.

    I see you have a Sims 2 BACC. I've only recently discovered the BACC, and I think it's a pretty awesome challenge. I really like the way you write it. I'll put it on my list and catch up on it!

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