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thus, I will be stuck in a perpetual state of seniority limbo, constantly moving up 10 or 12 spaces one month, and, as more senior First Officers get their captain calls, ill be knocked back down 10-12 spaces next month. it will be a long time before i really get anywhere

Several of my ROTC Air Force compadres (how we avoided the VietNam draft in the 60'-early 70's) did their ten years military service as flight instructors at Texas airbases and then flew for the airlines. One , my best friend-still living , flew for 'Lame Duck', Atlantic, then Northwest,(Hq'd in MPLS) and then Delta as these airlines all got bought up in succession...as a result he was never on the primary seniority list and was a first officer for years 'till I pointed out he needed to captain anything to improve his retirement which he (promptly and amazingly did) and he took retirement at age 60 from Delta. It strikes me you are exchanging one 'rat-race' for another and as you are a depreciable asset in your late thirties(38) carefully weighing family time against a potential 22 year career or whichever will give you the best retirement. Both jobs keep u away from home so it's really strictly a purely logical matter of overall income and retirement by your sixties... which strangely comes in the 'blink of an eye'.... IMHO: make as much as you can for 22 years (really the 'back half' of your remaining work life) and plan on making it to your eighties; you'll need every dime!