Skyrim talk:Adoption

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Moving adopted children[edit]

This may be a possible bug. My family currently lives in Lakeview Manor in Falkreath but I now wish to relocate them to Solitude. My spouse Revyn Sadri has the dialogue option to move to another house (Despite a bug occurring in which all he says is, "The sky is so dark! What can this mean?" over and over again from the Dawnguard add-on), but neither Sofie nor Runa Fair-Shield, my adoptive children have the option to move despite having the children's bedrooms in Proudspire Manor available. Has this happened to anyone else and is there a way of fixing it? Thelisaraptor (talk) 17:59, 14 May 2013 (GMT)

By having the option for them to move, do you mean they don't have the dialougue option? The way I'm reading this, you're asking your husband to move and then looking to ask your children to move. If so, don't worry about it. Your children will automatically move with your husband to Solitude. If your husband is moving without your children, then there may be a bug.--WoahBro (talk) 19:13, 14 May 2013 (GMT)

Books as Gifts[edit]

Children will also accept certain books as gifts. The ones I am aware of so far are "The Yellow Book of Riddles" and "A Children's Anuad". I edited the article accordingly. — Unsigned comment by 98.15.208.227 (talk) at 21:17 on 17 May 2013

Thanks for adding that. The full lists seem to be here and here for male and female children, respectively. Someone may want to look into verifying items on the lists and posting it somewhere in a short/neat way if possible. — ABCface 21:27, 17 May 2013 (GMT)
Yeah, I'd like to get them done, always feel responsible for this page~ Dreamshadow (talk) 23:07, 17 May 2013 (GMT)
Although I didn't find them in the list, you can still give your children DLC daggers(Dragonbone, Nodic, Stallrim...) as a gift. Special daggers not in the list can't be given(such as Blade of Woe, Mehrunes' Razor). Checked in game. Dreamshadow (talk) 00:01, 18 May 2013 (GMT)

Can't Adopt Child[edit]

I have Lakeview Manor, and i built a single bed and a dresser, but at Honorhall, i'm still told my house isn't suitable. Any suggestions? — Unsigned comment by 50.54.217.79 (talk) at 22:24 on 4 June 2013

Have you tried building a child's bedroom and furnishing it with at least a child's bed and chest? I know it says that you don't have to have one to adopt, but it's worth a try. --Xyzzy Talk 06:16, 4 July 2013 (GMT)

Adopted Child Won't Accept Gift - Item is Too Heavy?[edit]

I recently (and finally) adopted a child on one of my files. It was the flower girl from Windhelm. But whenever I try to give her an item, it always displays any item as grey and the message pops up in the top left telling me that the item is too heavy to carry. Is her inventory full or is this a bug?

(EDIT) I found the bug on Sofie's page. -Light-in-His-Eyes (talk) 01:39, 5 June 2013 (GMT)

Yeah, I'm sure you can get some help from that page. Dreamshadow (talk) 01:56, 5 June 2013 (GMT)
Theres a bugged script that keeps adding baskets without removing them, ergo she can't carry anymore, if you're on a PC you can use the console command
<select NPC>
removeitem d955a 9999
to remove them from her inventory — Unsigned comment by 5.68.67.0 (talk) at 01:53 on 8 November 2013‎

Moving Children on the PC?[edit]

So I decided I wanted to move my kids from Windstad to Windhelm for a bit, but when I moved their father to the city they seemed to stay back at the manor, I waited a day, or two and they never really appeared at Hjerim. My husband is Deerkethus (I think I just screwed up his name.) So he's a follower or can be a follower right now I have him staying home. Is this some type of bug or was I just not patient?

99.59.172.157 20:53, 18 June 2013 (GMT)

It may be a bug, as there is a reported bug about your spouse not relocating with you. If you can verify that, at this time, they still haven't moved to your new home, then we should expand the existing bug listing to include the kids. --Xyzzy Talk 06:07, 4 July 2013 (GMT)
Same problem here. I've tried to move my family (Sylgja, Sofie and Lucia) from Lakeview to Solitude, my wife has moved but my daughters haven't. I have waited many days and tried every dialog option with them, to no avail. Strange thing is, when I speak to them they answer as if they actually were in Solitude ("Do you think I could be a Bard?" etc.), and my wife doesn't have the dialog option "How are the kids?". I play on the PC, latest patch installed. --82.60.53.14 08:35, 21 July 2013 (GMT)
Ok. I added the bug to the article. Can either of you try to move your spouse back to the old home, then ask him/her to move again to your desired home to see if that fixes it? --Xyzzy Talk 14:49, 21 July 2013 (GMT)

Dead Parents Bug[edit]

I have come across a rather nasty bug if adopting a child off the street whose parents have just been killed.(confirmed for Dorthe in Riverwood and Erith in Left Hand Mine and possibly Svari in Solitude) Instead of going to your home they sometimes go to the orphanage. The problem is the game thinks you have already used one adoption option so you will always be unable to adopt a 2nd child. (you can adopt them again but will count as 2nd adoption) — Unsigned comment by 94.9.177.164 (talk) at 04:39 on 7 July 2013

Not really a bug, they are supposed to go to the orphanage first, then you adopt them. Silence is GoldenBreak the Silence 04:59, 7 July 2013 (GMT)
If the dialogue option to let you adopt the brand-new orphan appears and proceeds normally, but results in the supposedly-adopted child immediately leaving you and going to Honorhall, then I would call it a bug, with the fix being "make sure you let the kid go to Honorhall before attempting to adopt them." --Xyzzy Talk 05:29, 7 July 2013 (GMT)
I had a variation on this. I adopted Sissel in Rorikstead immediately after Lemkil's death, and at first she went to Proudspire Manor in Solitude as she was supposed to. Later (after killing Grelod), I wanted to move her to Lakeview Manor, but couldn't find her for love nor money; after giving up and moving directly to her location with the console, I found that she was in Honorhall. Her dialogue when I approached her was the same as if she hadn't been adopted, but when I actually spoke to her, I had all the usual options for an adopted child. First I told her that it was time to go home, then that we were moving to a new house; she was there waiting for me when I returned to Lakeview, and I was later able to adopt Sofie (so the game didn't consider me to have adopted Sissel twice). Shahrazad the Listener (talk) 16:38, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Unadopting children?[edit]

Is there any way of undoing the adoption of a kid (as in, it returns to his or her previous state, and you have a free slot for adoption)? Guess I picked the wrong orphan for my current roleplay, so, yeah...

Thanks!

Erior (talk) 14:25, 31 August 2013 (GMT)

No, not in an unmodified game. So if you're on Xbox or PS3, you're out of luck. If you are on PC, there may be a way via console commands or through modding, though I wouldn't know how myself. — ABCface 17:26, 31 August 2013 (GMT)
I'd be intereted in knowing how to console command it, then; thanks for the answer in any case! Erior (talk) 18:46, 31 August 2013 (GMT)
You can try this series of console commands:
click on the child and type SetFactionRank xx004290 0 (xx being Hearthfires load order number) to remove the child from the faction allowing an open slot to adopt again
Then, to reset the adoption quest to gain another child you need to:
stopquest BYOHRelationshipAdoptable
resetquest BYOHRelationshipAdoptable
setstage BYOHRelationshipAdoptable 0
stopquest BYOHRelationshipAdoptableOrphanage
resetquest BYOHRelationshipAdoptableOrphanage
setstage BYOHRelationshipAdoptableOrphanage 0
setstage BYOHRelationshipAdoptableOrphanage 100
You will have to select the child and type SetFactionRank xx004290 1 again to make them adoptable.
Not sure if it exactly works (gathered this from another forums) as I have only ever adopted children from mods and do not have Multiple Adoptions mods installed. --Anubis Priest (talk) 15:59, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
I just did this to reset Francois's adoption status after he developed an extremely annoying bug (running up and forcing dialogue every time we made eye contact, and he did not stop after I dismissed my pet). I moved him back to the orphanage, but he doesn't have his usual unadopted dialogue; instead, he's switched to using the default newly-orphaned dialogue. It may have been just as well, because he's still running up to me every time we make eye contact, only he can no longer force dialogue. Also, I tried to use SetFactionRank to make Aventus Aretino adoptable, but it just disabled his dialogue entirely.
EDIT: And...when the rest of the family moved house, Francois still moved with us, even though I'd disowned him. --Shahrazad the Listener (talk) 22:47, 11 October 2019 (GMT)
All right, I just used this chain of commands to unadopt a child and allow myself to adopt a different one, but when the new child asked if I had a place for her to live, the only answer was "No, I don't", when I should have still had a bed free in Proudspire. Moving my family to Breezehome didn't help. And then I realized that resetting the adoption quest had removed the children's bedrooms from both houses. Once I re-purchased the bedrooms, I was able to go back and adopt her, but then she never showed up at Breezehome. When I went back to where I'd first found her, she only had generic child dialogue and I had to run through the full list of above console commands (including setfactionrank) to make her adoptable again...and the exact same thing happened. I tried "setfactionrank 25", to match the children I'd already adopted - nothing doing. I tried adopting a different child - the same thing happened. I've managed to setfactionrank him back to the usual orphan dialogue, but I don't get the dialogue options to adopt him. I think I've gotten locked out of ever adopting another child. --Shahrazad the Listener (talk) 02:10, 5 December 2019 (GMT)
Also, I think the above chain of events led to the game becoming unplayable/requiring a complete reinstall on my next save file. Right before all my save files were corrupted, my character was trying to talk to one of her children, and first only had two dialogue options and then had no dialogue options at all, only generic dialogue. So, uh, don't screw around with this stuff the way I did. --Shahrazad the Listener (talk) 17:45, 8 March 2020 (GMT)

just curius[edit]

If you kill braiths parents, adopt her, then move to whiterun, will she say that bit about braith being a bully? — Unsigned comment by 70.210.10.100 (talk) at 02:58 on 15 October 2013

No, one of the conditions for that line of dialogue is that it's not her saying it. — ABCface 03:23, 15 October 2013 (GMT)

The breezehome bug[edit]

I still get the bug where you can't build either the Alchemy Laboratory or the Child's bedroom (though Proventus will still take your money). I get around it by manually enabling and disabling the codes for the room, but it doesn't flag the house as being "adoption-ready" despite having the requisite items. What else do I need to do to make it move-in ready? Also, this bug extends to all the base houses, so the only way I'm able to adopt children is to build one of the three hearthfire houses. 68.196.61.47 14:46, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

According to the Breezehome article, it is fixed by the Unofficial Hearthfire Patch. That's probably going to be the best way to fix it. Barring that, there may be some other console commands that will make the house adoption ready, but I don't know what they are. --Xyzzy Talk 03:43, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

Stalking adopted child Bug[edit]

"Your child may follow you around, constantly forcing dialog with you", This has happened te me after i came home with a pet from kagrumez (DB dlc - dwarven spider or sphere), i dismissed the pet and things seem to be normal now. I also had a follower that i kept. — Unsigned comment by 82.66.200.28 (talk) at 17:33 on 9 January 2014

Try this: open the console click on her and type
setav variable06 0 <enter>
setav variable07 0 <enter> — Unsigned comment by H.L.Caerdic (talkcontribs) at 00:44 on 11 June 2015

clothes[edit]

If you give your kids new clothes, will they wear them? KaidaThyme (talk) 20:11, 14 January 2014 (GMT)

From what I've seen, yes. Every time I give my daughter a new dress, she changes to it immediately. --Xyzzy Talk 22:46, 14 January 2014 (GMT)

Not being able to adopt[edit]

So if I am reading it right, I may not be able to adopt children if my steward and bard sleep in their beds? Even if I adopt them with a different house and move them am I still unable to have them live in my first house? I0brendan0 (talk)

You can adopt up to two children as long as you have a children's bedroom in at least one house. Any of the three houses you build, you would need to have built the bedroom wing, or you can convert your alchemy lab room into a children's bedroom in any of the other cities, except Proudspire in Solitude, as you can ADD the children's bedroom as an extra room to the left of your bedroom, on the top floor here. To build or convert any of these alchemy rooms, speak to the steward in the Jarl's house/palace (the same as furnishing any room). Once you have adopted them you will only be able to ask your spouse to move to a house with a children's bedroom. So you would never be able to move your wife to Solsthreim for instance, as you can't build a children's bedroom there. Have fun with them, they can be fun if you interact with them. Biffa (talk) 03:31, 29 April 2014 (GMT)
I have Windstad Manor and I have Valdimar Sven and (Recently deceased Sonir) in my house when I tried to adopt. It said I couldn't so I looked at this page. I was like aw crap. So I killed sonir(I really didn't need her) and I don't know if I still can't adopt. I also can't make the bedrooms so that option is down the drain. What I'm asking is can I adopt children using another house as the one to get pass the check to see if I can adopt and then move them to Windstad manor? I0brendan0 (talk)
You can adopt by having a bedroom elsewhere, however if you don't have the bedroom wing at Windstad Manor, you won't be able to move them or your spouse there, once you adopt. Hope is helps. Biffa (talk) 02:23, 30 April 2014 (GMT)
Not really but I suppose that's how it's going to have to be. I0brendan0 (talk)
Marry your steward and don't hire a bard and the problem is solved. The steward will sleep in the master bed with you, leaving both the small beds free for your children. That said, this obviously won't work if you're already married. --Shahrazad the Listener (talk) 23:59, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

Gifting stolen items?[edit]

Can you do it? Or will they only accept legally acquired gifts? Obax (talk) 04:50, 12 January 2015 (GMT)

Simply yes they'll accept them. Biffa (talk) 12:33, 14 January 2015 (GMT)

New orphans not moving to orphanage[edit]

BACKGROUND: I have 2 adopted children living in Riften, Sofie and Lucia, though I needlessly asked the lady left at Honorhall for permission to adopt. She congratulates me about my adopting. I'm on ps3 so no unofficial patches installed. I installed the DLC after starting my current game. I also have Fjotra following me from Heart of Dibella quest. When I killed Lemkil (see below) I used my power as Thane to waive my crimes.

PROBLEM: I killed Lemkil in Rorikstead and his children Sissel and Britte are still running around the village after 2 game days. Should I wait longer? Or has one of the things noted above broken it? I tried killing Tormir in Darkwater Crossing and her child Hrefna won't leave either. kailomonkey

I read the adoption page again and realised "They will be moved to Honorhall Orphanage in Riften and can be adopted from there provided you haven't already adopted two children." might not have been stating the obvious about not adopting more than 2 children, and may have been suggesting that new orphans aren't moved to Honorhall if you have filled both adoption slots. I'd suggest rewording if this is the case. However...
I started a new game and met all the possible requirements and still no new orphans are being moved for me. Perhaps it's because I killed the parent? I'm giving up. If it's not a condition I'm missing that's not yet recorded then it's an instance of a bug or something. kailomonkey
I may be talking to myself here but I read elsewhere that the children listed as possible new orphanage orphans won't move there if you are their parent's cause of death. It also read that paying a fine immediately and calming the child could fix the new orphan for adopting but I am yet to achieve this. If any of this can be confirmed it would be useful information I think. --Kailomonkey (talk) 15:31, 4 February 2015 (GMT)
I don't remember how long it took, but I have, on more than one occasion, killed Lemkil and later found Sissel and Britte in the orphanage. Then again, I wasn't caught killing Lemkil; I either killed him from ambush or cast Frenzy on him and let the guards kill him. Maybe being caught killing the parent(s) is an important part of the bug. Shahrazad the Listener (talk) 16:43, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Two?[edit]

Is it two in total or two per house? Dragon Guard  (talk) 20:21, 8 April 2015 (GMT)

Two total. You can have a family in more than one house. Jeancey (talk) 20:28, 8 April 2015 (GMT)

Nekkid kids?!?[edit]

Just thought I'd mention this, dunno if it would qualify as a bug or not, but I just got home to Breezehome after a long time away, and my kid had no clothes on! Though she was at least armed with the dagger I gave her... I had previously given her a dress of some sort, so I went and looked in her chest. It had two dresses, I assume the one she was wearing originally plus the one I gave her. I was able to re-give her a dress and she put it right on. I just found this a bit alarming. Then again, I guess kids will be kids... Obax (talk) 01:16, 10 May 2015 (GMT)

It's a bug that can happen to any child once Hearthfire is installed, so its listed on the Children page. Silence is GoldenBreak the Silence 01:25, 10 May 2015 (GMT)

Other animals.[edit]

If I go to Ft. Dawnguard and buy an armored troll, is there a console command I can use to give it to an adopted kid?

For that matter, how about horses--an armored troll would be cooler, but what kid doesn't want a horse? — Unsigned comment by 121.159.60.241 (talk) at 09:15 on 31 August 2015

Additional Conversation[edit]

moving around the basement of Lakeview Manor, was standing on the grinding table and overheard daughter say "I'm not allowed to stand on furniture." unknown if confined to this house or girl script only. — Unsigned comment by 208.53.115.151 (talk) at 04:14 on 16 November 2018

I had this happen before I adopted any kids, so it is not confined to your daughters or Lakeview Manor. I think it was Dorthe in Riverwood, but can't swear to that.24.159.122.98 05:47, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Barefoot Kid[edit]

I adopted Alesan and gave him a new tunic. He put it on immediately, and as soon as he did, he was barefoot. I reloaded and tried giving him a different color tunic, and it happened again. Someone in the talk pages said that when kids lose their shoes because of a new outfit, they'll get their shoes back after a few days. Is that true? And shouldn't this be in the bug list?24.159.122.98 05:44, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

I can confirm this. O-a11y Talk 21:04, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Children not adopting Meeko (dog)[edit]

I had Meeko follow me to my house, then my kids didn't ask to adopt him. One of my kids has Cotton the bunny, maybe that is the problem? I've tried waiting, telling Meeko to go away, and leaving/entering the house. Anyone else had this problem? Help please! Btw, my family is currently living in Lakeview Manor. — Unsigned comment by 76.183.115.84 (talk) at 15:02 on 26 May 2019

I have the same situation. Sofie found a rabbit, but Alesan has no pet. When I take a husky or Meeko to my home (also Lakeview Manor), Alesan does not ask to adopt it. Is this a bug or expected behavior? The page makes it sound as though you can have two pets at your Hearthtfire home: a wild pet that a child found and a dog that you brought home. If the actual situation is that your kids can have a single pet between the two of them and your character can have an animal follower, that's something different, and the page should be clarified. Because if your animal follower is not a pet, then it has different behavior: namely, that it will return to its place of origin when released rather than remaining at your home. Valeria (talk) 20:34, 5 August 2020 (UTC)
The children will ask to adopt your follower pet if there isn't one in the house, but the child's personal pet is something they acquire on their own (had a daughter bring home an tiny white fox, it's very cute). I read somewhere you can move one child to a new home without a follower pet present, then they will ask about adopting the follower pet. And if you move them back, the pet should remain in that second home. 73.110.45.84 09:10, 1 February 2021 (UTC) -Mode7Ghost

family running away[edit]

i am playing on switch my family is in lakeview manor and they run away from home running to helgen using the road. is there any way to stop this or is my save cursed? — Unsigned comment by 192.159.201.150 (talk) at 02:34 on 1 February 2023 (UTC)