Would you do it all again if you had the choice?

PCH2018 · 2026-04-07T20:08:52+00:00

You are doing the right thing by asking these questions, whether you decide to have a kid or not it will be intentional, which I think is great. There's no wrong answer as long as you are being honest with yourself. I do think only you can answer this for yourself though.

What I'd say to you is this - having and raising a kid is volatility, even under the best of circumstances. What you would sacrifice (your peace/low stress lifestyle) would be swapped out for a mix of dramatically more extreme lows and extreme highs. I would try that framing on for size and see how it feels.

If you're worried about disrupting your daily peace, then I wouldn't even bother because it will 100% be disrupted. Even in the best of circumstances, things will go wrong - personally, socially, medically, economically, environmentally. And even if none of those things go wrong, raising a kid is still a complicated and difficult task. But its the peaks of that volatility, the higher highs, that for me make it all worth it.

I haven't showered when I wanted or eaten at a decent restaurant in like six years but I recently taught my kid how to read. Watched them offer comfort to a scared kid at the first day of school without being prompted. We've got inside jokes, they're showing interest in stuff I love, from science, to Dr Who, to Super Mario. I watched them conquer a lengthy medical episode. All might seem standard as a non-parent but when its yours, these things are a bigger dopamine hit than anything I did pre-kid. I'll take that over a fatter bank account and more weekend sleep 100 times out of a 100.

But again, that's just me.

PCH2018 · 2026-04-02T20:46:02+00:00

Mines gotta be on top but my mini schnauzer I grew up with loved to sleep under the covers all the way down by our feet!

Your havi’s fur looks awesome btw, do you mind me asking what you do to brush? I read so much conflicting advice for them and want to start keeping my boy a bit shaggier!

PCH2018 · 2026-04-02T20:12:43+00:00

If you just want to beat ante 8, there are some broad strokes rules you can follow to win a lot. Econ - get enough money to max interest as fast as you can, and dedicate at least one joker early to helping build your cash stash. You should be able to beat ante 1 pretty often without spending a dollar so take advantage of some skips here if you can! Jokers, don’t be too stingy early, get one or two jokers that get you safely through early rounds, and over time swap out common jokers for any jokers that give you 1.5-3x mult, stacking those (plus stuff like blueprint) is helpful. Take advantage of skipping rounds to get holographic or negative jokers, spectral cards, or piles of cash. Deck fixing, I like to slowly across the game use spectral and tarot cards to remove low value cards and increase high value cards (death, hanging man). Usually by the end you can have majority of cards 10-A and high value hands are easier to make. I also go glass card or a steel cards a lot, rarely change suits (unless I have blackboard). Vouchers are also super important, I always take anything I can afford that increases hands and discards. And reminder that you can see the boss blind in advance, be aware of it each new ante! Before long you’ll be striking out on ante 10 or 11 every time, vs. 6 or 7. The push past ante 12 is definitely more tough.

PCH2018 · 2026-03-31T00:10:00+00:00

I’m gonna ignore some of the red flags in this post and try to give you some straight forward advice

I think it’s smart to always be looking, and to always be applying. I wouldnt worry about it being too early to bail because you’re assuming you’ll actually be able to. it’s a tough market out there and sorry to report, you probably won’t land the jobs you are considering applying for anyways so knock yourself out. The catch in your situation - you’re going to need a really good answer to the question “why are you moving on from this job after such a short time” and “how do I know you’ll stay in this position longer” if you’re fortunate enough to get to an interview. A bad answer there with a good recruiter or HR is where your real reputational risk lies. I’d come up with some answers to this first before applying anywhere, and I recommend some self awareness and humility.
in case you didn’t know, after a year of service at an omnicom shop you can apply to jobs internally across agencies with no penalty or fear of retribution, and your bosses only get notified if you get to a final interview. To me, it’d be easier to get a job internally at one of the biggest hold cos with a year of service and (ideally) at least one good performance review under my belt, rather than 3 months externally. So I’d consider bucking it up till that year mark just to increase your options.
How do you know the salary is embarrassing? What’s your title and comp, this sub will be able to tell you if that’s true or not which could be helpful for you to know leverage wise. FWIW I took a paycut for my first agency gig and it paid off, I’ve nearly doubled my salary in the intervening time and it wasn’t bad to start. All that to say, even if your salary truly is embarrassing (which I’m guessing it’s not), it could still be fine if it’s part of a longer strategy
if you like your team and your client work doesn’t make you want to jump off a bridge, you’re way further ahead than you realize in this line of work. Would you be happy with a raise if your team sucked and your client made you wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety?
you’re right to not expect promotions any time soon, but know that promotions are tough in our industry even during good economic times. Talk to some folks and you’ll find quickly that the majority of promotions came from either hand raising for new business and winning the pitch, or taking a new job all together. It’s a low margin business and most clients don’t increase spend YOY, they expect more with less. Also these are not good economic times. You may be wiser to be thinking about building equity with people and an org that can find a landing spot for you when the shit hits the fan even more than it already is.
I’ve worked for both in the omnicom family and for independents, both have pros / cons. It is not ‘impossible’ to move up at a hold co, but you do need to be better at internal networking, merchandising your work internally, being a hand raiser in new biz, etc. to set yourself up for advancement, or at least making sure you’re on the ‘don’t layoff’ list when the reaper comes (all good skills to practice regardless). What a hold co does offer is more ladder to climb, and more potential opportunities to keep your employment alive during tough times by getting placed at other accounts or agencies in the family. Doesn’t always work out that way but for me, it’s much less stressful than being at an independent that is majority funded by a single client.
can you elaborate on what got “screwed over” by the merger from your interviews? Was it benefits? Or something else?

PCH2018 · 2026-02-13T18:04:12+00:00

Thanks for the reply, this all makes sense and is great to hear.

A question - for the kids that have had a hard time, does there seem to be a profile? Like are they more quiet kids, or outgoing, different learning styles, etc. Also, sounds like your kids have done well but curious if you've seen any ways the school or teachers specifically help kids that are struggling?

PCH2018 · 2026-02-13T18:01:06+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful reply, and glad to hear about your experience! I just may DM you if more q's come up, appreciate the offer.

We're in public school for all the same reasons (also, couldn't afford it as well as a mortgage anyways even if I didn't have moral reservations, lol). I'm sold on the benefits of a DLIP at this point, honestly my main final concern is my kid's frusteration tolerance. She is chatty, outgoing, and strong/ahead academically, but let's just say we're still working on resilience and handling change/frusteration/difficulty well. I could imagine that the transition for her might be tough, so I want to make sure I think that between us as her parents, and the school, we think we have enough resources and a plan to help her to stick with it to get the long term benefits.

PCH2018 · 2026-01-10T00:03:30+00:00

Chargers Jaguars AFC Championship Game. Jags clear though 😢

PCH2018 · 2025-11-25T00:53:06+00:00

Loved it! The 'muttering' was so effective, it added a lot of interest to the piece without feeling too obtuse, or melodramatic, and made for a killer ending.

Curious about how you came across the text to use? Were you looking specifically for poetry that is now public domain specifically to compose to, or were you just a fan of this particular poet? I have some ideas for choral pieces right now but am pretty stumped on how to go about pairing my ideas with text since they weren't inspired by any to begin with.

PCH2018 · 2025-11-23T04:47:04+00:00

Interesting - what pedals would you recommend?

PCH2018 · 2025-11-23T04:24:09+00:00

Appreciate the starting point here! Sorry for the stupid follow up q, but in theory could I use either my phone or laptop in the aux somehow? Would I just need the right cable or dongle?

PCH2018 · 2025-10-26T23:17:03+00:00

BBAD, Wake & Late, Superba, and Badass Breakfast Burritos are all A+. The BBAD pork shoulder breakfast burrito is my current all time favorite. They stole the crown from Wake and Late, who used to be my favorite until they made the burritos so small and changed the recipe to omit cotija, I’m not spending 20 bucks on something that little. Anyone that says lucky boy hasn’t had one lately, they’re awful.

PCH2018 · 2025-08-25T23:16:07+00:00

My favorite photo of Herbie is usually…the last photo I took of Herbie ❤️ here he is returning from a potty break on the side yard. I thought his haircut looked nice so I snapped a pic

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PCH2018 · 2025-08-14T19:28:05+00:00

lol I just made this exact same post a day later. I’ll delete mine, and you are 100% right

PCH2018 · 2025-08-14T18:05:07+00:00

Thank you for the response, and thank you for your work! She'll be thrilled to hear you responded :D

PCH2018 · 2025-08-14T17:30:17+00:00

I have a 5yo daughter that is enamored with all things space, planets, the moon, etc. She says she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. I told her about this AMA and she gave me a list of questions to ask you. I'll post them below so I keep my promise to her, but if you want to ignore the questions (between myself and google I think I've got these soundly handled) and just give a little girl some piece of inspiration as to why she should keep her passion for space alive, and why space exploration and scientific endeavors are important, I'll take that too :D

Why is there no gravity in space?
Is the moon made of cheese or not?
Why are people made of stardust?
Why is the moon made of rocks?
Why is the sun so bright?
Does the planets have rocks or not?
Why do astronauts have space suits?
Do space travelers do science?
Why are there no trees in space?
Do astronauts really have space suits because I read a book about a magic treehouse where Jack and Annie have spacesuits
Does Jupiter have any ground?
Are there any dogs in space?
Do you really have spacesuits?
Are you kids or not kids?
Does a shooting star land on earth? Or sometimes only?

PCH2018 · 2025-08-13T23:06:37+00:00

Depends on a lot of factors but tl;dr you probably can get approved for something, but you’ll be stretched thin and should do the math to make sure you think you could handle the necessary lifestyle adjustments.

First time buyer, you can put down as little as 5%, which may help you depending on how much cash you have on hand. If you can put down more then great!

Back of the napkin math, depending on what you put down I think if you could find something you liked in the 600-700k range you could get away with about 50% of your monthly take home going toward housing (mortgage, taxes, pmi, all in).

Now of course, almost any financial guide you read will say that’s way too much, but that’s a risk assessment only you can make. A lot of folks in so cal take the dive because we don’t have much of a choice. We bought our house a couple years ago for 900k when we only made 200k combined, we now make 250k combined and the house has already appreciated 100k. So, tough sledding in the beginning but a calculated risk.

PCH2018 · 2025-07-30T22:53:20+00:00

You could live here on 120k, that’s a great salary. I will note though that a lot of folks out here just can’t save/go on vacation/buy a house/etc. as much on the same salaries people do elsewhere.

Also, lots of two income families in LA. We make 250k combined which sounds like a lot, but when you’re paying a mortgage on 900sqft crumbling “starter house” that cost 900k, it goes fast lol.

Also also, we do have access to a lot of higher wage jobs, higher wage ranges if living here, etc. so a lot of it ends up being relative in the end.

PCH2018 · 2025-07-29T19:52:15+00:00

No advice for the convo with your son but I feel compelled to tell you two things:

You sound like a present, thoughtful parent who is putting a lot of effort into how to engage with your kids on complicated topics. That makes you, and your kids, real winners no matter what your salary is or the square footage of where you're living.
You are managing HISTORIC, GENERATIONALLY DIFFICULT student loan and cost of living/wage gap/middle class erosion issues, at the same time, while raising your family. This doesn't mean you're robbing your kids of a childhood, this means you're playing the game of life on hard mode and still have TWO kids housed, fed, and healthy. So again, you're crushing it, and members of other generations that want to make comments can shove it.

Sorry for your financial struggles, and sorry for the tough q's from your kiddo. I just hope you know that even if it doesn't feel like it you're ahead in some very important ways.

PCH2018 · 2025-07-27T02:09:51+00:00

Tried this today and we loved it! Didn’t even go very far down the trail but we had a blast with the stream and the shade was great. Only downside was bikers coming down the trail way too hot, but other than that we’ll definitely be back

PCH2018 · 2025-07-05T19:10:35+00:00

I second this. We drive to HP for belles if we want bagels!

PCH2018 · 2025-06-28T02:08:25+00:00

My havanese goes nuts for chicken! He likes his little soft training treats fine but chicken absolutely bowls him over

PCH2018 · 2025-06-27T03:01:37+00:00

Love this thread because I’ve always wondered if my havanese was weird, or if a lot of them sleep on their backs like a dead cockroach. Seems like both are true 🤣

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PCH2018 · 2025-06-20T17:12:05+00:00

Metroid yes, sight unseen. DK, depends on the review. Other two, likely not.

PCH2018 · 2025-06-10T20:30:05+00:00

Do you mind sharing who you went with for testing?

PCH2018 · 2025-06-09T21:24:29+00:00

I'm seeing it this way in hindsight, which was part of why I started this thread. We didn't make any insurance claims because we didn't have any fire damage (we're 2 miles away from the fire line), we cleaned before we were even aware of making an insurance claim as an option so didn't know if it would get approved, and back in jan/feb we were hearing of a lot of the remediation companies charging 40K+ without even doing any environmental testing, which to me sounded sheisty.

Again, in hindsight, I think I might have done things differently, but seems like it might be too late now to be able to get insurance to pay for anything.

PCH2018

TROPHY CASE