Plot always take so freaking long, doesn't it?

You could age cousins up artificially, rather than playing in rotation. Say, just nip into the lot to age them up to where they should be, and head back to the main lot. I used that in a legacy for fun, so the kids had cousins, but I could mostly ignore them.

It depends on whether or not you'd actually miss playing the families, I guess. But there's always the option of side challenges/unpublished simming to just play with.

It'll be interesting to see what you decide on :)