Life skills were introduced in The Sims 2: FreeTime and The Sims 2: Apartment Life. They are skills that a Sim can learn to unlock special interactions or abilities. Unlike other skills, they are not learned incrementally. A Sim will not have a life skill, nor will they fulfill any wants to obtain a life skill, until he or she has learned it completely.

The Sims 2: FreeTime

Parenting

This skill can be learned by reading a book from any bookcase. Once learned, it allows a Sim to "check" on babies. A thought bubble will appear indicating any motives needing attention. The symbols for hunger, bladder, and so forth are the same as they are when older Sims need something and begin waving at the player.

Knowledge and Family Sims will often roll a want to learn this skill after having a baby.

The Sims 2: Apartment Life

Fire Prevention

Sims with this skill panic less when a fire starts, making it easier for the player to direct them to extinguish it or move away.

This skill is bugged in that learning the skill does not actually do anything, and Sims with the skill will still panic at fires for the same duration as Sims without the skill. The Fire Mod from Mod The Sims addresses this by making it more likely that Sims with the Fire Prevention skill will autonomously attempt to extinguish fires or call the fire department.

Anger Management

Reduces the chance of becoming furious with another Sim. When Sims with this skill do get furious, they may get over it faster, and the relationship damage is less.

Lifelong Happiness

When a Sim has learned this skill, his or her aspiration level will take much longer to decay.

Physiology

Sims with this skill build body skill faster, gain fitness faster and lose it slower, and lose energy more slowly. This skill was bugged in the initial release of Apartment Life, so that Sims who learnt it would learn body skill instantly, as well as any skills practiced after body. The bug was fixed in the Apartment Life patch, but then broken again in Mansion and Garden Stuff. Several mods fix this bug, such as M&G Physiology Fix from Mod The Sims and alfixes mod from More Awesome Than You. These two mods conflict, so use either one of them.

Couples Counseling

Allows a new interaction: "Repair relationship with...". When this interaction is used, the Sim using it will start trying to fix the relationship between the two Sims who have a romantic relationship problem. If a couple is divorced, their relationship cannot be repaired. If the repairing Sim was part of a cheated relationship, the relationship cannot be repaired directly by them.