Backstory
Divorce is never easy, but your father took your mother's departure especially hard. He quit his job, packed you and your little sibling into the backseat of the family station wagon, and moved halfway across the country in search of a fresh start. Dad promised things would be better in your new town, but he can't bring himself to get out of bed most days, let alone go out and find a job. Seems like it's up to you to keep the family together.

Overview
Your main character is an elementary-school aged child who has to earn money and take care of their younger sibling after their parents' divorce. This Sim is the only one in the household allowed to earn money-the adult in the household cannot work outside the home or be self-employed, and should avoid leaving the home lot as much as possible. You can make money however you'd like-through painting, fishing, selling collectibles or inventions, and completing opportunities around town, but you must earn enough to keep food in the fridge and the Repo-Sim and Social Worker at bay. The challenge ends when your younger sibling reaches YA.

Starting Out

• Create three Sims: one adult or young adult, one child, and one toddler. The Sims' gender and appearance are largely irrelevant to the challenge. The into says 'Dad,' but your parent, main character, and younger sibling may be male or female. You may also use whatever traits you'd like, but you cannot reenter CAS or modify traits (except with the "Mid-Life Crisis" LTR) once the game has begun.
• Move your family into a starter home or empty lot.
• Because you moved cross-country in a beat-up car, you had to buy all of your furniture after you arrived. As a result, your home is downright Spartan: you have two sleeping spaces (one double bed or two twin beds), one crib, one potty chair, one shower/tub, one toilet, two sinks (one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen), one stove, one refrigerator, a counter, a table with two dining chairs, one television, and one skillable or money-making object (be sure it's usable by a child). You may buy either the xylophone and peg box OR the toy chest, but not both.
• After your home is built and furnished, use familyfunds to set household money to 0.

Gameplay

• No cheats, except to reset a stuck Sim and reduce household funds at the beginning of the game.
• You may not age anyone up prematurely, though you are free to adjust the lifespan before you begin playing.
• You may not control the younger sibling at all, and you may only control the adult Sim while your main character is at school. This is the only time you can direct the adult can cook, clean, make repairs, or teach toddler skills to the younger sibling, so use it wisely!
• At all other times, you must control the child Sim and allow the other two to behave autonomously. You're still in charge of maintaining everyone's mood, so make sure to keep an eye on the portrait panel.
• You may not have any adult visitors or service Sims on your lot for any reason (this includes firefighters and police officers-best to get rid of the smoke detector and burglar alarm!). If they come over, they'll realize what's going on and call the Social Worker! Autonomous visitors, such as the housewarming party and mascot are permitted, but cannot be invited in.
• The child Sim must earn enough money to pay bills and purchase food. You can buy food directly from the fridge, but you should avoid quick meals.
• Once your younger sibling ages into a child, you may sell the crib and potty chair and purchase one nappable object (a sofa, love seat, or recliner, but not a bed).
• After aging up to Child, your younger sibling may not help you earn money. You're busting your hump so they don't have to.
• Teens may not have a part-time job-you're needed around the house.
• If you have Generations, you may not enroll your Main Character in any after school activities. They may attend field trips, but cannot sell any souvenirs. The younger sibling is free to participate in after school activities and clubs.
• If you have Pets, you may not earn money via hunting.
• You may only invite child and teen Sims over if they are Best Friends or BFF's with your Main Character.
• If you're allowed to pick a trait at someone's birthday, go ahead-you've earned it!
• If you earn enough money to purchase additional items for the home (a third bed, a nicer TV, a dishwasher), you may do so, but all money must come from the child's earnings.

Game over, man! Game over!

• You lose if you invite an adult to your home lot or call for services.
• You lose if the RepoSim comes.
• You lose if an autonomous visitor enters your home.
• You lose if you or your sibling are taken by the social worker.
• You lose if anyone dies.

Other

• Autonomous, game-controlled visitors, such as the paparazzi or the University mascot don't automatically fail the challenge, but should be ignored or asked to leave the lot as soon as possible. They may not enter your home.
• You may use mods to remove or modify curfew.
• For an additional challenge, use the Harder Bills Mod, start with more than one toddler, or have the parent have a new child.

Are autonomous visitors excluded from the rule? Because I get a fair few people knocking on my door not just when I move a new household in, but also in the middle of the fucking night.

Unless you can mod 'em out, I'd say autonomous visitors are fine-you can't invite people over or call for services, but autonomous visitors don't violate the rules, as long as you don't invite them in. I should have thought of that before I posted, ha.

Alright, thanks!

Do any of these conditions change once the child breadwinner becomes a YA? Can she get a RH job? I don't want to; the money's better from everything else she does, just throwing the question out there.

More to the point, I guess, does the adults on the lot rule change since the responsible kid's now a responsible adult, and the social worker finding you out really ceases to be an issue?

Loved playing this scenario . The dad was the most useless sim I've ever made, which is an impressive low. Went Dramatic/over-emotional/loser/brooding/no sense of humor with him. Look out window, look out another window, sit in the middle of the flooded kitchen and think about how much life sucks, look out window. He was pretty much the part, though.

Glad you enjoyed it! I suppose the kid could get a RH career once they've reached YA, but like you said, by that point, they're probably set for life with money off paintings and collections. I'd say they could also invite other adults over, but I'd keep the restriction about service Sims, just to keep a little bit of that challenge element present. I'll admit, I was still in the process of playtesting when I posted the rules, and I haven't reached that point in my own game yet (A+ challenge-writing right here)!

Your dad sounds amazing. I don't remember all of my traits, but at the very least, mine had Slob/Loner/Hates the Outdoors. My kid started out as Artistic/Mooch/Klepto, the trifecta of earning money without a job.

Awesome challenge. I'm trying it out (P.S. I didn't read the rules or anything before I started just the CAS bit, so I made my Mum all great traits and my children not so good, then I realised I wasn't even going to be playing with her -.-) and I'm doing great so far. But will it be cheating if while the child is at school the Mum gets a job? I'm not so sure... I'm meaning to spend the money on furniture...

-Deba

The goal of the challenge is for the child to be the primary earner for the household. If your starter home wasn't furnished with the basics, use money cheats to get enough for the furniture listed in the original post, then reset the household funds to 0. Other than that, you're going to have to wait until you can afford it from the child's earnings.

EDIT: I modified the OP to clarify your specific question. Thanks for the feedback, always good to know when I've overlooked things

the way I have my family set up is my father is a wimp who just lazes around on the couch all day watching the tv my teen (the older sibling) had brought in from the garbage dump. I have my child sim (the younger sibling) mainly have fun at the festival but every once in a while she gets an opportunity to earn money and I have her take those (they don't come often) that's fine right? as long as she's not earning money like its a career my older sibling (the teen) should be the one earning tons of money right?

This is a great, quick challenge. I created an ugly, lazy dad who watched TV all day, while the main character looks after her twin toddler brothers as well as she can. Surprisingly, the dad rolled wishes to train the toddlers and, giving instructions while the child was at school, managed to fully train one and potty train the other!

Instead of giving my MC traits to help her in the money quest, I made it a little more difficult; she's Good, Neat and a Daredevil; on her Teen birthday she was finally given Artistic. Dad is a Brooding, Couch Potato Slob who Hates the Outdoors and has No Sense of Humor.

But we're doing quite well with the money stakes, was able to buy a second bunk bed for the twins when they aged up, and we have upgraded the shower and the stove. The key is picking wild flowers! Sometimes you can get $600 for a single flower!