How did we use to play this????

I played Sims 1 yesterday for the first time in about 24 years. How on earth did we play this for years on end?

After two hours, I was wrecked. My sims were miserable, my baby got taken from social services, they could barely hold together a job and they were always too depressed to do anything. I bought them a hot tub to try and make them happy.

Either this game has gotten harder or I had the patience of a saint when I was a kid. Hahahah