Are there any benefits to getting married?

Question

In some of the previous Harvest Moon games your spouse would help you out on the farm in various ways, but this isn't the case in all the games in the series. I'm hoping that A New Beginning falls into the former group, but FOGU doesn't mention anything. The A New Beginning "Married Life" and "Child" sections are still works in progress though, so there could be benefits not currently covered on the site.

Are there any benefits to getting married, or will my spouse just hang around my farm instead of around town?

Answer 1

Your spouse can help you forage and cook, but I don't think children fufill any purpose except for being "trophies" of a certain event.

You need to make the Child Bed blueprint in order to trigger the pregnancy event (you can buy it from Rebecca 7 days after your marriage event, the pregnancy lasts for about 60 days). The gender is random, but you can save the day before and reload and get the opposite gender. It would seem that only your kids grow in this game (the village kids stay kids forever...).

Your kids only come in 2 color pallets (blonde and brunette), one for each gender regardless of who you marry. Each of their growth stages (baby, toddler, child. You can give them a special Grown-up candy that you get from Alice [give her Royal Jelly] to turn them into teens for 30 days) lasts for about 60 days.