5 MINUTES
with DR. LAURA SCHLESSINGER I
Oil and Water
’ve always loved doing book signings (assuming enough people show up, so I don’t feel bad) because I enjoy and am
touched by the families that stand in line to meet and interact with me. I genuinely enjoy meeting people who listen to my program and read my books. The least-frequent combination
at my signing table: mothers and daughters-in-law. It is very touching when the two most-important women in a man’s life actually like and love each other. They both realize the importance
of each other’s relationship with their man and cooperate instead of compete. Very often both the mother and
the wife/girlfriend missed out on a mother/daughter relationship, and in addition to both loving the man they “share” emotionally, they both have
found something missing in their own lives and embrace that aff ection and mutual support. This scenario has certain
requirements. The mother must be emotionally healthy and basically satisfi ed with what she has made of her life. The daughter-in-law may not
yet be that mature, but if she is respectful and accepts that the relationship is not one of equals, things will probably evolve positively. Now the other situation is the
wife’s mother, the mother-in-law of the husband. Some girls are so unhealthily connected to their mother for support and approval (and sometimes money) that the concept of husband-comes-fi rst is just not in the gray matter. In addition, the wife may have
a manipulative mother who lays a huge amount of inappropriate guilt on her child to be responsible fi rst to mommy and not her husband or children. I would like to state up front
right now that I see “drop-kicking” Shark Makes Huge Splash
50 years ago, monster movie left bathers terrified to go swimming. ::
BY JERRY OPPENHEIMER M
ovie lines stretched around the block at
theaters from Brooklyn to Beverly Hills. Fear gripped bathers and
surfers at ocean beaches from Coney Island to Santa Monica. It was June 20, 1975 — 50
years ago this month — when a monstrous killer great white shark leaped off the big screen. The film’s menacing trailer
warned: “See it before you go swimming.” And for moviegoers and bathers alike across America,
70 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | JUNE 2025
the release of Jaws, about a man-eating fish terrorizing an East Coast resort town at the start of the summer season, was as if all hell had broken loose. Jaws, in which a shark
turns a beautiful beach into a gory fast-food stop, struck fear in anyone putting their toe in the surf, or even going near the water. It is still considered one of
the scariest films of all time — a genuine monster hit. Based on a book by a
first-time young novelist, Peter Benchley, Jaws was cleverly
directed for maximum shock using convincing mechanical sharks as special eff ects by another then-neophyte, 27-year-old Steven Spielberg, in what had just been his second directorial eff ort. As The New York Times film critic Vincent Canby observed, “Mr. Spielberg has so eff ectively spaced out the shocks that by the time we reach the spectacular final confrontation [with the shark], we totally accept the make- believe on its own foolishly entertaining terms.” Jaws overnight became a
box of ice phenomenon, the biggest revenue generator in
a mother-in-law as a last resort — but necessary in some situations. When it is clear that a continued relationship is dangerous or destructive, it is in the best interest of the marriage for there to be severance. This seems to be a horrifying step
for most folks. What always throws me into a spin with a caller is when they worry about how their child will be without some grandparents. Why would they want their children to experience negativity, criticism, harshness, and lack of warmth? All this “fear” about the consequences of self-defense is not just from weakness. Nice people worry about hurting people’s feelings even when the other person should be in the series Twilight. I spend a lot of time supporting
folks who fi nd it diffi cult to do what will inevitably be their psychological salvation: excommunicating the mother-in-law.
Listen to Dr. Laura on SiriusXM Channel 111, Mon.–Sat. 2–6pm ET, Sun. 5–9pm ET.
movie history, beating previous blockbusters like Gone With the Wind and The Godfather. Benchley’s novel, published
by Doubleday and Co. a year before the film was released, remained on the bestseller list for almost a year.
JAWS COURTESY OF THE EVERETT COLLECTION
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