Does the fact that you have no evidence to support such an assertion (and previous posters have outlined examples of similar decisions made by other family members) mean anything to you…or is the “slam Dr Laura train” such an easy train to jump on that facts don’t matter?
(and FTR…I’m not a Dr Laura fan)
Nothing really. What does it say about the gay kid who’s parents want nothing to do with him? What does it say about the black guy who’s parents abandon him because he married a white woman? Just because her mother didn’t want anything to do with her really doesn’t tell us anything.
Marc
Advice that Schlesinger might well follow.
I thought it was a hideously tasteless thing to say in reponse to the news of her mother’s death. Jeez, the poor woman was a recluse, she was murdered, and was found decomposed. And Dr. L chooses this moment to criticise her. Real class.
Here’s another tidbit, from the very long LA Times story:
"In a 1994 People magazine profile, Schlessinger had said her estrangement from her mother dated to 1986, when the mother walked off her job as Laura’s secretary.
"Neighbors described Yolanda Schlessinger as a friendly, pleasant, talkative person who seemed “quite bright,” said Edna Neidorff, a former resident of the apartment complex.
"Neidorff said the victim was chatty with neighbors. They called her “Lundy,” the name she listed on the condo roster. Schlessinger had lived in the building two or three years with a very noisy, white, parrotlike bird. Several said they had stopped hearing the bird some weeks ago.
“Licia Masi, who lived in the same building as Yolanda Schlessinger, said that earlier this week, her daughter, a tenant officer for the building, had called police to check on Schlessinger. The daughter had grown concerned because she had not seen Schlessinger in about two months, mail had begun to pile up, and two months had passed without her paying her condo bill, Masi said.”
So she wasn’t quite the recluse, but also not out there everyday seeing her friends.
Never saw the program, then? The show failed because it was bad, bad, bad.
-Myron
(The bolding in the quote is for emphasis)
I figure it is between Dr. Laura, her mother and her own conscience.
I also believe what another doper said in that Dr. Laura would give advice that would align itself in tow with the choice she made with her mother.
I haven’t listened to Dr. Laura in years (I listened to her at my old job, before she got on her anti-gay trip). I don’t know much about her now, other than if her anti-gay thing is as bad as some people claim, she’s gone off the deep end as far as that’s concerned. She wasn’t like that when I listened to her. Grumpy at times, but not like that.
I don’t believe she ever advocated her listeners to force contact with a relative who didn’t want anything to do with them. Sometimes you just have to let a relative go. I can think of many times where Dr. Laura advised her listeners to just walk away, or just send Christmas and birthday cards and not much else. Sometimes, that’s all you can do. You can’t force yourself on someone.
And for those of you who are so happy and eager to criticize her—I cannot believe you. Who knows what the story is behind her mom’s death? Why are you so quick to assume it’s Dr. Laura’s fault? Good grief. We don’t know jack shit yet. I don’t believe for a second that you’d be gleefully saying the same things about are more well-liked celebrity, had their estranged parent ended up dead in a similar way.
from Dr. L:
I’d be saying the exact thing same if any celebrity’s mother died and that person’s statements to the press were critical of the deceased.
There’s a time and place for commenting on your relationship with your mother, if you’re asked at all about it. Instead we get a) that Mom was basically a terrible person, and b) she was terrible in spite of all I (Dr.L) tried to do.
I’m really offended that someone would say such a shitty thing about her mother, on the same day she was discovered dead and decomposing. It’s tasteless and vile.
The correct thing to do was for Dr.L to shut the fuck up, express shock and sadness or whatever when asked, and refrain from criticising her mother to the press. Dr.L has no sense of decency.
Where do you read that Dr. Laura said her mom was a terrible person? Or that she was terrible in spite of all they tried to do? What I read is a person who is upset and pissed that her mom wouldn’t let her kids into her life, and now it’s too damn late.
She was upset. Probably in shock. People say weird things when they are upset. And often, they say exactly what what they are feeling, with no internal censors. And what I am getting (at this point) is that Dr. Laura was just upset because her mom shut everyone from her life. If my mom had done that to me, I’d be pissed too.
My dad died rather suddenly, and we were all in turmoil afterwards. I don’t know what I said about him after he died, but I can damn bet you I said some things that could be construed as “tasteless”. I wasn’t thinking. I was all out of whack. The damned bastard didn’t take care of himself, which is why he got so ill so quickly. He lied to us and told us he’d been seeing a doctor, when in fact he hadn’t. I don’t remember now what I said (I was so whacked out) but it wouldn’t surprise me if I said all these critical things right after his death.
So, am I a horrible person too?
The day we had my dad’s memorial service, I went through his record collection and started playing his records. (He never let us touch his music.) We all rooted through his stuff. Pretty tasteless, huh? Am I a terrible person for that too? What the HELL do you know about Dr. Laura and her relationship with her mom, or her family? Did you know her mom? Do you know jack shit about what was going on?
Maybe you have incredible built-in “good taste” censors that always work, no matter who grief-stricken you are, but I know that I don’t, and I’m guessing that many of the rest of us don’t either.
This is exactly what I was going to say, almost down to the precise words. I can’t criticize Dr. Laura for her relationship with her mother, but I sure as hell can think she ought not, in all decency, talk shit about her mother who is dead and now has no chance to defend herself.
I truly can’t stand this woman. She along with very few other people on this earth, makes my blood boil.
Perhaps the reason this poor old woman chose to separate herself from her family was because not one of them gave a Flying-Fuck about her. I can’t imagine the matriarch of a family, except for one suffering from some type of mental illness, pushing away a loving and generous family.
So…
To she who says over and over…ad nauseum…
::In a very perky, high, annoying voice with head tilting from side to side::
"I’m My Kid’s Mom."
Should instead be saying…
"I’m Not My Mom’s Kid"
This word is reserved for very few women…
wait for it…
Bitch!! :mad: :mad:
What! You thought I would maybe use that “C” word. If I ever get pissed off enough to use that “C” word, clear the Fuck out, cause the BBQ Pit, she’s-a-gonna-'splode. 
Seriously though, Laura, you are very cordially and courteously invited to go fuck yourself.
Yours Sincerely,
Honey
Un-fucking-believable…
No Honey, that word is reserved for you, you cunt. Please post again when one of your parents die, and without knowing the whole story, I can tell you to go fuck yourself.
Asshole.
Yosemitebabe, I’m sorry things were rough when your father passed away. Really.
However, there’s a difference in your examples and this example: you didn’t talk dirt about your Dad to the press in a prepared statement. I don’t care what Dr.L’s relationship was to her Mom, but dissing her to the press is despicable.
Wow, KP…big Dr. L fan? Because otherwise I can’t see you taking Honey’s post so harshly. To many of us (myself included), Laura Schlessinger appears to be one of the most heartless, selfish, self-involved, self-righteous cunts ever. The fact of her mother’s death makes me feel really sorry for her mother, not a bit sorry for her.
I don’t believe for a second that her mother chose the estrangement. I’ve heard of almost no mothers that choose to be estranged from their children. What I HAVE heard of, (and what fits perfectly with someone as self-righteous and judgmental as LS) is people who take issue with some aspect of their parent’s lives, choices, behavior, and expect their parents to be different. And when the parents don’t change, poof, estrangment, and then the child claims the parent “chose” the estrangement.
I don’t know what happened with LS, but I know who she presents herself to be, and compassionate and forgiving don’t appear anywhere on the list.
Squeegee: I beg to differ with you.
Had I a nationally syndicated radio show at the time of my father’s death, I very well may have said some of the critical things about him in a prepared statement to the press. Just because Dr. Laura is famous and I’m not doesn’t mean she’s any more or less upset or screwed up than any other person who is grieving over the sudden death of a parent.
I made abysmal decisions right after his death. Months after his death.
And seriously, I don’t think (from what I’ve seen so far) that Dr. Laura is “dissing” her mom so much as expressing hurt and frustration and pain. “Dissing” is when you say they were a horrible person (literally—you say, “They were a horrible person.”). “Dissing” is when you bring up petty stupid stuff that they did or said. I think Dr. Laura was explaining why she hadn’t been in touch with her mother, and why she felt it was “tragic” and “sad”.
While it probably would have been more prudent if Dr. Laura hadn’t shared the details of her mother’s death, perhaps she felt that it would be better if her listeners heard about it from her rather than the press, which can get, on occasion, quite venomous. And, like I’ll keep on repeating, good judgment is sometimes in short supply when you are still reeling from the sudden death of a loved one.
No, not a huge fan at all, I’ve heard her show before, and I have have a grip on what she’s about. Reading down through the thread I expected some Dr.L bashing, Honey’s post was just ludicrous. If she doesn’t like what the woman does, thats fine, opinions and assholes, everyone has one. Honey offered her guess as to what Dr.L’s family dynamic may be, and used it to call her a cunt, oh, no, wait she didn’t actually say the C-word did she? I call bullshit on this. No one here knows what the deal is with Dr L.'s family. There’s still alot thats not know about what happened with mom. Using an event like this to diss someone because you don’t agree with them is low. What pissed me off is the tapdancing around Honey calling her a cunt.
Oh, and the ‘go fuck yourself’ comment too. Ya, lets deliver that at Ma and Pa Honeys eulogy. I don’t know them, so it’s just as relevent.
Oh ya, and on the point you made here…
Just because you haven’t heard of it, dosen’t mean it don’t exsist. Honest.
I’m glad someone brought up Dr. Laura’s stance on homosexuality because I’m wondering it anyone else can verify this.
Wasn’t she at first sympathetic with homosexuals? I used to listen to her in her very early days, and I recall her specifically defending homosexuals, saying things like, “I cannot bring myself to attack two people simply for loving each other.”
And then later, after I was out of the loop for a time, I tuned back in and heard her practically railing against them.
What happened? Did someone piss her off? Refuse to kow-tow to her or what?
Ummm, my grandmother has estranged herself from her family for the last 3 years. We were more than loving and more than forgiving of her through the years. Here are some examples of her benevolence: 1) When my pregnant cousin was getting married, Granny wept the entire time and moaned very loudly that she had ruined her life – so loudly that my uncle was very close to having her bodily removed from the church. 2) When her divorced niece got re-married, Granny gossiped in great detail about what a brazen hussy she was to her niece’s new in-laws at the wedding reception. 3) My grandfather, her husband, missed his own father’s funeral because she didn’t give the message to him. She didn’t want the funeral to ruin her college graduation party.
It reads like fiction, no? Trust me, it’s not. She’s a bitter, malevolent woman. Yet, we invited her into our homes and put on the happy face for years.
And then after grandpa died she met a man at a shopping mall and called to tell us she was getting married after 6 weeks of dating. My aunt discovered that George was in the process of getting a divorce. Thinking my granny didn’t KNOW this, my aunt told her. And that was it. Granny cut off all contact from us and said we were trying to ruin her life with our viscious gossip. That was 3 years ago.
Good riddance.
I don’t know the circumstances of Dr. Laura’s family situation nor is it any of my business. But I do know that it’s wrong to place blame when you have no knowledge of what went on behind closed doors.
KP235, Sweet Jiminy Cricket, that’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been called a c***. It wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be.
About Ma and Pa Honey’s eulogy’s. When Pa Honey died (of an aneurysm, at age 42), he did not lie undiscovered for weeks. When Ma Honey dies, she also will not be alone for even a few hours, goddess forbid, I hope I’m with her when she breathes her last.
You are correct in saying that I do not know the family dynamics in Dr. Laura’s situation. However, I responded the way I did after reading 2 more articles about dr. Laura’s mother’s death.
Here is one And here is another
In each article she comes off as heartless and cold. Could she not as least take some of the responsibility for the estrangement from her mother?
In My Opinion, it is unusual (although I will concede that it does happen) for a mother to distance herself from her children for no reason. Please note that dr. Laura’s sister is also estranged from her (Laura).
I know there are people on this board who are not in contact with certain family members. I’m sure there are as many reasons as there are posters but, at the same time they are not on televison spewing on about “Family Values” and “Personal Responsability”.
Here’s a quote from my first link
So what ? Holy crap, my mother is “filled with negativity” too, I think a lot of people could say the same thing. I sure as hell wouldn’t let her body lie alone and rotting for months.
Honey