Skyrim is such a huge game that it's survived with an active player base for over a decade. This is, in no small part, due to the dedicated modding community that adds both big and small tweaks to update or improve the available content.
That sense of connection and community factors into the genre of the game itself. As fans know, the relationships the player builds with NPCs in an RPG are crucial to their sense of realism. Skyrim launched with the ability to marry certain NPCs and, in a later DLC, added the opportunity to adopt children from an orphanage or the streets of Skyrim's major cities. Here are a few mods to spice up any player's love life, home life, or family life.
Updated September 18, 2023, by Gabrielle Huston: With all eyes on Bethesda and Starfield, you may be experiencing some nostalgia about your favorite RPGs! If you're revisiting Skyrim but wish you could improve your family relationships, we have just the mods for the job.
15 "To Have And To Hold" Mod - Your Partner Doesn't Need To Know About Your 10 Other Families
Do you love love? Are you frustrated by the monogamous limits placed on you by Vanilla Skyrim? If so, To Have And To Hold may be the mod for you. After all, the Dragonborn is an adventurer who is seldom home with their family – who's to say they don't have two or three going at once?
The big draw to this mod is the ability for the Dragonborn to marry up to 11 NPCs at once. You don't even need to worry about losing track of them because the Dragonborn will also get a book, entitled 'Mara's Tear,' which lists each spouse and where they are. Other improvements include allowing the player to dictate their spouse's outfit, adding a wedding reception to the marriage event, and the ability to intentionally get divorced.
14 "Realistic Elven Children" Mod – Your Family Can Now Include 50% More Tusks
Ever think that the elves, orcs, and other non-human races of Skyrim must be better parents? After all, none of Skyrim's abandoned children – from the streets or Riften's orphanage – are anything other than human.
Realistic Elven Children adds adoptable Bosmer, Altmer, Orsimer, and Dunmer children to the mix of the Nord kids that the Vanilla game features. This gorgeous mod has carefully put together the features of each race into children's bodies – even detailing additional mods you can install that make for the most beautiful kids possible.
13 "Deithwen – Family Edition" Mod – A Cozy Family Home
There is no shortage of gorgeous, jaw-dropping player homes in the Skyrim modding community. If fans are looking for a city home with enough beds for a family, Deithwen is an excellent option. A cluttered home reminiscent of any family lifestyle, it's tucked away in Skyrim's capital city: Solitude.
The little details are hidden in every nook and cranny and they really make fans fall in love with the home. From chess boards to shoes strewn across the floor to bars of soap and beyond, there's something here for everyone.
12 "I'm Glad You're Here" Mod – Try Not To Break Your Child's Ribs
By the end of the game, Skyrim players have killed hundreds of dragons. They have become the Thane of every city from Whiterun to Timbuktu. They were an unbeatable swordsman and an incomparable magician. What else was there to do? Hug their children, of course.
I'm Glad You're Here is a Skyrim mod that allows you to build more intimate relationships by hugging your children, spouse, and followers. Special settings customize each interaction and, suddenly, players are sharing special moments with their loved ones in no time.
11 "Custom Family Home" Mod – Move Your Spouse And Children Anywhere
Modded player homes are all well and good, but the default settings are only designed to prompt the family to move to an established home. That list includes only the homes that the gamer or their spouse owns - not some dragon cave or palace in the clouds, or whatever other mod a player prefers.
Thankfully, that's what the Custom Family Home mod is for. First, it allows players to move their family to any place they choose. Then, as icing on the cake, they can customize what their spouse and children interact with and where they spend their time.
10 "RS Children Overhaul" Mod – Raise The Prettiest Family In All The Land
Loads of the best Skyrim mods are designed to update the beautiful, but undeniably ten-year-old, graphics of the game – especially NPC bodies and faces. Not all are so careful as to update the appearance of children, however.
The RS Children Overhaul mod completely changes the look of kids around Skyrim. It's less creepy when a child runs up to you begging for money for the market if they don't look like an afterthought from 2011. Each child has carefully chosen hairstyles, facial features, and updated clothes.
9 "The Kids Are Alright" Mod – Trust Us
The Kids Are Alright is an alternative overhaul for Skyrim's children in case the previous one doesn't work well for you, or you just want to try something different.
This mod basically wraps two tasks into one: it both updates the kids' appearances and adds child versions of other humanoid races, like Khajiit and Argonian. After all, why should all the kids be humans?
The mod(s) you pick to overhaul children will probably involve a little trial and error, so don't get discouraged. Some will work for you and others you'll have more trouble with, depending on your own setup and the other mods you have installed. The best thing is just to have a few options at your disposal.
8 "Dominions: More Potential Marriage Candidates" Mod – Get Married To Your Dream Partner
The land of Skyrim is full of dozens of lovely, varied marriage candidates for the player. However, if you've been playing Skyrim since its release, you might have exhausted all the options they're interested in. This marriage mod will put some spice back into the romances.
More Potential Marriage Candidates will add 36 new men and women for you to sweep off their feet. This includes some previously unromanceable races like Khajiit – so long as you can handle the fact that they'll sound like an Argonian or a Nord.
7 "Fair Thee Well" Mod – Say Goodbye To Your Family Like A Good Spouse/Parent
As an adventurer, you probably have an unusual relationship with your family in Skyrim. Sometimes, you're in your hometown for days at a time to dump all your stuff, craft new armor, visit the shops, etc. Then, your beloved partner and children may not see you for weeks or, Talos forbid, months on end!
With all that in mind, saying goodbye to them before you go off to fight dragons and take arrows to the knees is the literal least you could do. With the Fair Thee Well mod, you'll get a particular effect each time you look into their watering eyes!
When you talk to your spouse or child with the Fair Thee Well mod, you'll get the option to bid them farewell. Their response will elicit a blessing on you, which might improve your healing capabilities, make you more deadly in combat, or help you carry more loot (among other things)! However, there's also a 1-in-5 chance that they will express fear at your departure. This will set a curse, rather than a blessing, on you.
6 "Hearthfire: Multiple Adoptions" Mod – Raise Your Own Army Of Children
When Hearthfire was released for Skyrim, it provided players with the opportunity to adopt children for the first time. Many fans were overjoyed to finally be able to save the orphans they'd spent so long pitying in Riften. Others were upset that they had to choose only two to take home.
The Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions mod fixes this problem by allowing the player to adopt up to six rugrats to live at home with them. It even includes a list of compatible home mods it works with – since players have to have 6 beds to accommodate everyone!
5 "Relationship Dialogue Overhaul" Mod – Get Out Of Your Marital Rut
For a game with so many subtleties and small details, the conversations with your chosen spouse are incredibly dull. After you walk down the aisle, the magic in your relationship just disappears! The player can ask for some food, for money, and if their spouse feels like moving – but not much else.
The Relationship Dialogue Overhaul mod takes a stab at solving this marriage-gone-stale problem. It adds more than 5,000 lines of dialogue for spouses and other characters and changes their conversational behaviors. The modder took incredible care – adding lines by the same voice actor in new places where they make sense and even cutting together several lines by one actor to form new phrases.
4 "Family Life: Pregnancy" Mod
With Family Life: Pregnancy, you can live out your parenting dreams on a whole new level. Skyrim allows you to adopt children with the Hearthfire DLC (included in Skyrim: Special Edition), but it's not quite the same as having a mini-you running around!
This pregnancy mod allows you to have your own children, with the biological characteristics of both parents. This can turn out some fascinating results, believe us. It also includes things like being a vampire and a werewolf, so be sure to have yourself cured if you don't want to curse your child with a needless burden.
No need to fear: it still works with same-sex parents. However, it hasn't been updated in a while, so it may not work with some of the other child-centric mods on the list.
3 "Stonehall Orphanage" Mod – Social Services Says We Have To Stop Overcrowding The Children
There's only one place for abandoned, hopeless children in Skyrim: the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften. Now, we're not qualified to decide whether one orphanage is enough for an entire country, so take our evaluation with a grain of salt. However, we just have to point out, there's a lot of killing going on. Constantly.
In case you didn't know, there are a few children already living in the Honorhall Orphanage when you start Skyrim, but any time you kill the parents and/or guardians of another child somewhere in the world, that kid is also sent to Honorhall.
If you're starting to worry that they might not have enough beds, no need to worry; that's what the Stonehall Orphanage mod is for! It adds an extra orphanage to Markarth where children can be well taken care of until they find good homes. You're sure to be impressed; the creator has gone to significant detail adding this new building to the city. You'll even see the children who live there running around the streets of Markarth!
This mod is particularly useful if you're running the mod that allows you to adopt more children than normal.
2 "More Gifts For Children" Mod – Build Better Bonds With Your Family
Ever get bored of giving your children the same few gifts every time you return home? Sick of picking up apples because it's one of the few things they'll accept? Enter: the More Gifts For Children mod. This update to Skryim allows you to give hundreds of different times to your children as gifts when you speak to them.
There are two versions of this particular mod. The alternate version is called More Realistic Gifts For Children. While this still adds lots of options for presents (as well as removing the gendered restriction on doll gifts), it doesn't allow you to give weapons or other dangerous items to these kids. The original version is no-holds-barred, so the player can gift spells, real weapons, wine, books on any topic, and more!
1 Armor & Clothing For Kids Mod
Do you get sick of the boring, uninspired clothing choices for the children of Skyrim? Do you grow weary of seeing the same shirt and dress in three or four different colors on every child in the entire country? Do you wish your children could have inherited your incredible fashion sense? The Armor & Clothing For Kids mod was designed for players just like you.
The premise for this mod is very simple: let children wear all the same clothes that adult NPCs can equip. It's pretty incredible; the modder has gone through and adjusted all the vanilla armor, clothing, and jewelry pieces so that they'll fit the child NPC models.
Once you've installed it, there's no doubt that you'll be instantly addicted. Just looking through the screenshots on Nexus is a treat! The kids all look so adorable in grown-up clothes, and incredibly goofy in the armor (if you ignore how macabre it is that you're dressing a child up for a war).