A new perspective

Charlotte has been playing the Sims a lot lately. It's ultimately frustrating for her, since the game is for much older people who can (for instance) read, but she likes creating the family and building the house and especially telling them what to do. Her kids never do homework and therefore get sent to military school. She often puts in a swimming pool but forgets beds, so her people drown; otherwise she forgets to feed them and they starve to death. So she has lots of practice making new families.

She always makes our family, which is a little unsettling to me -- "Look," she'll say, "the Charlotte is playing!" But it does offer an interesting perspective. When you create your people, you have to specify their personality using five measures: Neat, Outgoing, Active, Playful, and Nice. Take a look at us (sorry for blurriness):

Me: nice, very neat, not *at all* playful.


Dean: also neat, nice, and very outgoing, but not active, and not playful. This seems a little unfair since he plays with her all the time!


Charlotte: again with the neat! Active, playful, not so nice.


And George -- very active, very playful, not so neat, and not really very nice at all.