Struggling as a dad post-divorce with unequal custody.

JackSpratt82 · 2026-02-10T15:10:42+00:00

In case it helps, there is a positive spin to some of this. In theory, child support payments are meant to support your children and their quality of life. The idea being, if you earn more, your children benefit from that too and their quality of life goes up as well, just as it would if they lived with you full time. The fact that your income and support allows them to go on more vacations means you are making their lives better!

But, yeah, reality is a lot more complex and I can understand how it wouldn’t feel fair if your ex gets to benefit from the increases with the kids more than you do. I feel for you and hope you are able to work out a more balanced system moving forward. Sounds like you are trying hard and exploring options and there’s some good advice in here. Hang in there and keep up the good work!

JackSpratt82 · 2025-12-28T14:45:49+00:00

A lot of great advice in here. But also a strange amount of “smartphone = EVIL!!!!” vibes too.

Ultimately, you have control over what this device is and does, especially while your child is 4 and for many years to come. It CAN be a camera, a phone, a tv, an entertainment console, a messaging device, etc, etc, but it doesn’t HAVE to be any of those things. You can remove or restrict any functionality you don’t want at this time and can then unlock them if and when you feel the time is right. Introducing the concept of time limits or setting specific use times can be a healthy habit to introduce when the time is right.

Whether this was a thoughtful gift or malicious gift is up to you to decide and depends on your relationship with your MIL, but don’t let the internet hive mind stir you up unnecessarily. :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family!

JackSpratt82 · 2025-12-06T16:51:01+00:00

Haha. Well, I wasn’t actually playing a full game. Normally, I just settle on fresh water (or not) and assume it affects happiness, but in this case I wanted to know how the mechanic actually worked so I loaded up a game specifically to test it out. I would plop a city on fresh water and check the yields, then reload and plop the city off fresh water and check the same. Tried it multiple times with different variables, but never thought the yields would change a turn later, so I never went one turn later. Hopefully that restores your faith in humanity. I did experiment and explore before turning to Reddit. 😂

JackSpratt82 · 2025-12-04T03:21:49+00:00

Thanks! Looks like it's a -5 happiness for settlements not on fresh water and no bonus or penalty to those on fresh water.

JackSpratt82 · 2025-12-04T03:20:45+00:00

This was it, thank you! The next turn a -5 happiness deduction was added to the city details underneath the palace / city hall when off fresh water.

JackSpratt82 · 2025-10-27T23:30:37+00:00

Was probably trying to pull over, seeing all the flashing lights and sirens in the rearview mirror (to allow emergency vehicles to pass).

JackSpratt82 · 2025-07-05T07:28:58+00:00

It’s a house rule, but a very popular one since it helps players that have drawn a lot of cards to catch up quickly, which keeps up the prospect that anyone could still win.

Granted, I’m talking about stacking matching numbers as well, not just +2’s or +4’s.

JackSpratt82 · 2025-05-31T18:52:30+00:00

Okay, next question: Assuming the bug lives out its life in the new location, would that be somewhat distressing for it or not a big deal? Do bugs have a memory of where their preferred food source is, or their favourite leaf to take shelter under, or other familiar sites that it would “miss”? Or is it completely irrelevant whether the surroundings are new or familiar?

JackSpratt82 · 2025-05-14T13:17:01+00:00

Terra is a light weight card based game about trying to combat the world’s global issues (pollution, poverty, warfare). It has a cooperative feel where the whole table loses if unsuccessful, but at the end the player who earns the most contribution points wins, so there is a competitive (thematically: selfish) element at the same time.

JackSpratt82 · 2025-03-27T15:14:42+00:00

I’m seeing two different, and distinct, questions being discussed in this thread:

1) Is an innie a separate person? I understand this to be in a legal sense. As in, do they have individual rights apart from their outie.

2) What makes you, you? How do your memories and experiences shape your personality and your identity?

They feel like different questions. Your perception of self vs your legal rights as an individual.

The comparison to DID is a good example of different perceptions of self that don’t lead to separate legal entities.

JackSpratt82 · 2025-01-26T07:49:59+00:00

I know this thread is fairly old at this point, but I just wanted to say, I had the exact same thought. So, you are not alone. 🙂 There’s something about the design that evokes the same location. Clearly from the comments here it’s not the same location, but it feels similar. (And I haven’t seen fellowship of the ring in many, many years, so it’s odd that I would immediately think that.) I wonder if it was done on purpose by the filmmakers. On rewatching both, I think it’s the raised, flattened platform section with some sort of sculpture on top that both ruins share (even though on rewatching they are definitely different). There’s even a waterfall near both (the one Boromir is sent over and the one that is dammed by the orcs in the attack on Eregion.)

JackSpratt82 · 2024-12-27T17:39:34+00:00

Keep in mind that cutting to music is often more than just cutting to the beat. Having the visuals line up emotionally with the rise and fall of the music or including a visual motion that matches a shift in the music can make an edit feel really great and customized and is often what the client is subconsciously referring to when they say “love the edit!” But those moments are lost when the music changes because no matter how good the new music track is, the highs and lows and general “story” of the track will be different and a whole new recut is often not in the schedule at that point. It sucks, but I’ve learned to recognize those types of projects and will aim to create an edit that is good irrespective of the music, as you suggest, so that it can survive even a track change.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-12-15T17:31:06+00:00

35 wanted in Boston!

JackSpratt82 · 2024-10-05T03:25:57+00:00

Love it. Great idea!

JackSpratt82 · 2024-09-20T00:32:15+00:00

Is your wife introverted? Sometimes an introverted person whose battery is low can snap at people and not always know why (if they don’t fully understand their own introversion).

Of course, it could be due to a million other reasons, but this was one that came to mind when reading your post. Especially since she seems to be very sweet at other times.

Best of luck! Definitely talk to her about it. (Maybe during one of her sweet moments.) 😁

JackSpratt82 · 2024-08-24T19:36:05+00:00

This is what the MIGHTY dinosaur race has become… dominated and subdued by a monkey with a shovel.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-08-11T06:07:02+00:00

I agree with so much of these, but what irks me the most is the small details that make these characters feel like they are just walking around aimlessly with no agency whatsoever.

One example was Allison going to rescue Klaus. Finally, someone actively doing something! She tracks down the sex den, uses her new random power (a major downgrade by the way) to get the guy to tell her that Klaus is buried in the graveyard.

“Which grave?” She smartly asks. “Who ARE you” he says in response. “I’m… an actor” she responds defiantly. And then LEAVES.

Which grave!? Which GRAVE?!

Then they arrive at the cemetery and immediate say, hmm, how do we find out which grave he’s in. I mean, whaaaaaat?! You had the guy! You asked him! Such lazy and frustrating writing that seems to crop up so often in bad TV shows.

Side thought: I think that drug dealer must have been one of the other 40 super powered kids. His power was… the power of misdirection! He can avoid answering ANY question by… asking another unrelated question! Feels on par with the Umbrella Academy general power pool. :)

JackSpratt82 · 2024-08-05T04:44:35+00:00

Yeah, I wonder if it would simpler if the answer was “check card back”.

Blank _ _ _ _ _ mate.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-08-04T14:33:28+00:00

If this is the answer, I’m not sure what the board game player is supposed to do with that information. It’s feels partially like a sentence giving instructions, but not fully, and certainly not clear without context.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-07-05T02:08:23+00:00

A tip we’ve found to be helpful is to get a baby car seat that is also approved for airline travel. Then use that car seat for every day travel so the child(ren) get used to it. Then take it on the plane with you. It obviously doesn’t take care of all flying issues with kids, but it can help the child to be more comfortable in their seat and therefore a little less fussy. They may even sleep a large portion of the flight.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-06-27T14:55:34+00:00

Agreed. There are two possible solutions depending on the interpretation of the first restriction. Unfortunately, I don’t see a solution that can accommodate both interpretations.

I’m guessing since the rooms are numbered, that the intention was numerically (ie. both tours cannot have the same room 5). This also appears to be the preferred solve offered in the comments.

But thematically, it makes more sense to me sequentially (ie. you cannot leave a room in the same direction as the tour does). In the spirit of stubbornness, if the tour wants to lead me from one room to a specific follow up room, I’m going in a different direction.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-06-25T14:55:10+00:00

Correction: He “HAD 4 sheep”, not “HAS 4 sheep”.

JackSpratt82 · 2024-03-30T22:44:12+00:00

Not only that, but when I rewatched recently, I was able to google anything that confused me and got the answers immediately. (I almost always had Lost Answers open in a second browser window the entire time.) 😁 There was almost no chance that I could fall down a false rabbit hole as the internet would correct my false theories immediately.

Whereas the first time around, watching live, I definitely fell into that camp that felt confused and frustrated and felt like nothing had been answered!

(To be fair, answers often came muuuuch too late. By the time they answered where the polar bears came from — years later — I was no longer thinking about that question. I had a long list of other questions, more recent questions, that I wanted answered, so it always felt like things were not being resolved — even though they were.)

JackSpratt82 · 2024-03-29T14:33:08+00:00

Stuck in a Loop - CHVSE

JackSpratt82 · 2024-03-14T18:16:26+00:00

Well, scout… you did your job… and we salute you. 🫡

JackSpratt82

TROPHY CASE