First you go to the menu, then you click on options, then you see a button that says "pause game" there are 2 boxes one is above the word yes and one is above the word no, tap the box that is above yes. That is how to pause virtual familys.
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Normally the Start button will pause a game, but the console can be closed, which will put it into sleep mode and pause the game.
Go to the pause menu thing then press 'P' or 'Pause Game' XP
If you have got The Sims 3 on PC, then you press the P button on the keyboard to pause the game. Press the P button again to un-pause the game.
just press space this may not work on the older versions of the game for they do not have a pause feature.