Is it just me, or does every adopted kid act like -- to quote Dr. Cox from Scrubs -- a "bastard-coated bastard with creamy bastard filling" on the first night at your house? Say "time for bed" and they say okay, then just stare at you! that's about the least-worst thing they do...if it were real life I wouldn't be able to tell if they were being smug and testing boundaries or just stupid as Hell..

Maybe it's just Breezehome or something (that place does svck for kids...it's very cramped with just a spouse and Lydia)

...and while rant mode is on, so much for Svari being a cute and sweet little girl. I mean, you go through the trouble of murdering her train wreck, white trash parents and making it like they both went postal at the market and committed suicide-by-guard (and hey, that may not be a friggin' pony, but it is a lot of work and shows some serious dedication!) to adopt her and give her a childhood that at least MIGHT not guarantee that she becomes a Newport-smoking stripper by the time she's 19, and how does she repay you? By going bonkers for 3-4 days and instead of meeting me at Breezehome, going to the orphanage, pretending like we're in Whiterun when I find her and acting like everything is just like a Leave it to Beaver episode. Good lord, what a pain in the ass. I might as well as adopt some damaged ass girl who's guaranteed to be an attention-starved EMO dork with a long Bauhaus phase in real life...

I am glad my dear Sophie & Lucia turned out very normal. No regrets at all adopting them. For what its worth I'm at Lakeview Manor which according to most forums seems to be the place most kids are fond of (they either say the other houses are creepy or too cold).

So far, Sophie likes Heljarchen Hall, she's an only child so far with current character. With my other character, Lucia loves it and Blaise gets cold, but likes it anyway. It's funny when they act up, and you have to give them that look and say their name....and get a "yes Ma...." You can almost hear the huge sigh of complaint! LOL

Timefever-i am sure if you have kids of your own you are well versed with this routine and if not, well think twice before doing it.............you have 20 years of it ahead of you, at least

I still say there should have been a mechanic where if you kill either of a child's parents, you can't adopt the child. Because what Timfever just described was just... ewww. Wrong on multiple levels. Like the guy who kills his parents and begs the judge for mercy becasue he's an orphan. Only worse.

Hey, Mister "killing is wrong!" Buzz Kill, she's the one who said, and I quote, "You're the best! Can you be my mother?" Was I supposed to make her sad or -- god forbid! -- make myself look bad by saying "no, you already have two perfectly healthy parents, just give them time and they'll get better re all of the sad stuff that happened with your uncle"???/!!!! Just tell her that there's no Santa, why don't ya.

Seriously, the whole chance to do things that are "just...ewww" and "wrong on multiple levels" is, oh, about 80% of the appeal to sandbox games. It's cathartic.

Now, then: back to my latest adoptee...

Oh, I didn't mention that when I found her, she was sleeping at the orphanage (it was like 2 AM), and when I wake her, I'm greeted with "Mama! You're home! Look what I found!"

Note: there is absolutely nothing next to her or in the city of Riften that could be mistaken for a house pet.

My response choices? They are:

"Svari..."
"No, get that thing..."
and "Nope, no pets ever blah..."

The first time, I said yes cause I figured it was just a glitch. but no...we get home and there is no animal anywhere. I couldn't even count the possible ways that having a non-existent pet might mess with my game, so I reloaded the autosave and told her no. (which was sad, what with the poor, innocent, invisible, and intangible animal of some kind having to back to the unforgiving wild...)

So, from my perspective, she seems to have hallucinated having an animal follow her and adopting it. Plus, she did that after accidentally wandering to an orphanage about 100 miles away while also mistakenly believing that said orphanage was my house. Wow, that is one damaged child. Or at least that's how I choose to interpret it...

oh, and she does that thing where they end up on or inside of the ceiling beams in your greenhouse, and she does it a lot. Her dialogue is all mixed up (but I think every kid aside from the four new ones do that for a few days after being adopted) between the just shipped off to the orphanage ranting, like "I hate it here! i want to go home!", the catatonic "mama....", etc, etc. to being at your house, like "the lake is so pretty..." but it's been like a week or longer. Not to mention all of the extra speech options she still has. It's um...interesting, to say the least.

What I'm trying to say here is...I think I've found my ideal match!

Hmm . . . adopted my first kid last night, Sophie from Windhelm. Moved her from the icy streets to the foggy marshes, from fearsome Stormcloak soldiers to fearsome frostbite spiders. No complaints yet. Of course, the house is huge and maybe she'll grow up to be an alchemist.

I wish there was a way to adopt the kids whose parents are killed by dragons. The little girl in Riverwood who, despite my best efforts, always loses her parents by midway through the game. Then I have to worry about where she's staying and so on.

Tim, have you considered putting her back up for adoption?

Or . . . there are a lot of beautiful vistas in Skyrim where a lovely camping trip could be held. Great for teaching outdoors and archery skills. But you have to be careful as 'accidents' _can_ happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbU_YqGZF5Y

Not with kids, and that's a really disgusting idea. Kids are 'immortal' just for that very reason.

Hey - you murdered a girl's parents so you could adopt her.
Expect issues.

Hey, like i already said, she practically asked me to do that (at least that's how I chose to interpret her blurting out "you're the best! can you be my mother?"), and I am going to take the liberty of blaming her issues on her original parents (remember? those two people that I killed?). I mean, come on: they weren't exactly going to win any awards for parenting.

Now, being an emotionally closed off ice queen or a crazy shut in who spends all day ordering ceramic kittens or something, sure! Hell, Greta could have had her own show on TLC. But oh dear, good parents they were not...

If it's happened since you installed Hearthfire (or even before...?), she should be at the orphanage in Riften. Check the backroom, it's kinda like that part of the pound where they keep the dangerous or messed up dogs and cats from what I can gather (...or maybe a more apt anology would be the administrative segregation unit/SHU part of a prison?). When kids get sent there they all start to form this gang or something that never leaves that part or say anything that isn't about how much they hate everybody, etc, etc.

So go! Go forth and adopt your dream child!

I just ended up adopting Hrefna when I went back to Darkwater Crossing for a quest, then the most savage and overpowered bunch of vampires EVER attacked the place just as the entire town's population and the Stormcloaks were all huddled together. Man, it was ugly. I kept reloading it to save people but no matter who else got saved, her mom and that dark elf guy kept eating it like it was an Olympic event and they were on massive amounts of steroids or something.

But, I got a daughter out of it, so who cares? ; )

Personally, I can't handle it when Alvor eats it...he feels like a real life uncle or something. Since I got this got game for Xmas, there's been many a time I've reloaded an old save even if it meant giving up a ton of a goodies whenever he's bit it, and I hardly ever dare to go there out of fear that a dragon is going to follow me and kill half of the town.

Same thing happened a while back when I went to Warmaiden's and what's his name informs that he gets all of his stuff from a Khajit caravan since Adrianne died (!), and it was all just way too depressing (I mean it even sounded like the things a widow/er says a few weeks later!), so I went back until I found a save where she was alive, and I have vigilantly checked on that place ever since...

I read in several places that orphaned kids get sent to the orphanage.I murdered a bunch of kids parents in order to flood Honorhall with orphans.It didn't work.Not one kid showed up.They stayed in there respective homes and acted like nothing ever happened(other than the "I hate you forever and ever" speech which is forgotten in the very next setence they speak.Do the parents have to get killed by another NPC for this to take place?

I wanted evey child in Skyrim to live in Honorhall.Thought that would be a fun experiment.

You killed her parents just to adopt her? That is kind of disturbing.

I'm going through every adoptable kid for a trial run to see if there's any differences or if some are more fun. Plus the whole taking out their parents/guardians without getting caught is practically a separate (and FUN!) game that is kinda disturbing/kinda hilarious/kinda funny.

After their parents die, it can take a few hours for them to realize that they're dead (when they happen across/trip over the dead body, that seems to speed things along a bit...), and you can tell because they go from their normal dialogue to answering anything you say with "sigh..." then go on about their parents, how hopeless they are, etc. You can adopt them then or wait a bit (it totally varies and depends on where they are and what the city or town is like) and they'll disappear, which means they're at the orphanage.

God...I practically have a PhD in this crap now...

OMG LOLOLOL You crack me up! Thanks for the laugh! Well, I won't waste my energy killing trash parents... there are enough deserving kids out there! Maybe I'm just lazy or damn tired after building a HUGE ass house! LOL

Thank you, thank you...as for the experimenting (and the unavoidable collateral damage...) being a waste of energy...my friend, you could not be more wrong (well, you totally could but, well, you know what I meant...).

My current "experiments" would've been over in one afternoon if it hadn't take that bizarre turn with how buggy Svari ended up being...it's so crazy that I'm going to have to make a new thread to explain everything (assuming of course that I ever actually start to understand it!). I have a 4-5 page word document that is nothing but a list of totally weird and random things she does.

and after swearing off marriage with kids, I'm also gonna start trying out different spouses, too, and see if they affect how the super buggy child acts (I've already adopted several other kids and they all make her act more normal, but in a boring way, so I'm a bit torn) and if any aren't super-annoying or even (dare I say it?) nice to have around...

Can I change this thread to what is with every time you f**king move??? My god that girl is such a little terror/pain in my ass. Just as she's acting normal I move to Whtierun for a bit and ka-boom, back to being a slightly more psycho version of that kid Drew barrymore plays in Firestarter...

Sounds like kids in Skyrim are just like kids in real life.

the hearthfire forums are hilarious! i am in stitches over your story , it was literally painful!