Living on Broken Glass

Summary

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The Dr. Laura Podcast

Episode: Living on Broken Glass
Date: May 31, 2026
Host: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Main Theme: Addressing long-term emotional abuse in marriage and its impact on family well-being

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Episode Overview

This episode features a deeply personal and emotional call from a listener named Meg, who is struggling to navigate her marriage marked by her husband’s repeated angry outbursts and verbal abuse. Meg shares her journey of healing from family trauma, efforts to maintain family unity, and her fear that staying might be harming her children despite outward appearances. Dr. Laura offers no-nonsense, urgent advice focused on the well-being of Meg and her children, emphasizing the realities of emotional abuse and the need for concrete action.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Meg’s Situation: The “Broken Glass” Marriage

• Background: Meg details her lifelong journey of healing from childhood trauma and emotional abuse. While she has found peace in many areas, her husband's temper remains a persistent source of distress.

• Current State: Meg describes a pattern where things may seem fine but are periodically disrupted by her husband's outbursts. She often feels like she’s “walking on broken glass,” anticipating the next anger episode.

• Family Impact: Though Meg’s children are outwardly “happy,” she expresses concern about the effects of her husband’s temper and her own well-being.

  “I just don’t know how much more I can take walking on broken glass.”
  —Meg, (03:41)

2. Caller's Dilemma: Stay or Leave?

• Indecision: Meg wonders if she should wait until her children are grown, continue managing the outbursts, or take more decisive action.

• Husband’s Efforts: She acknowledges that although her husband has sought help, his temper and anger have not substantially improved.

• Denial and Reality Check: Meg admits her husband sometimes trivializes her pain, even making fun of her when she raises the issue of emotional abuse.

  “He was too worried about the golfers across the street from us hearing him yell instead of his own children who were sleeping soundly in their beds at 7:30 in the morning.”
  —Meg, (04:32)

3. Dr. Laura’s Advice: Take Decisive Legal Action

• Immediate Recommendation: Dr. Laura advises Meg to seek a legal separation, not a divorce, and to require her husband to live elsewhere until he commits to intensive therapy for at least a year.

• Emphasis on Children’s Well-being: Dr. Laura forcefully challenges the notion that the kids are unaffected, insisting that continued exposure to emotional volatility is damaging, no matter how outwardly pleasant home life appears at times.

  “You are deluding yourself if you think your kids are happy. They know exactly what’s going on. If they can hear it across the street, they can hear it in their bedrooms.”
  —Dr. Laura, (07:55)

• On “Happy Kids” Myth: Dr. Laura confronts the idea of minimizing the bad with the good, warning Meg that percentage games do not negate the harm caused by repeated toxic outbursts.

  “You’re contributing to an environment which is not healthy for them. And you can play games with percentages…”
  —Dr. Laura, (09:23)

4. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Meg’s heartbreak and confusion:

  “My heart is so broken because I love him. But I also am very hurt by his emotional, verbal abuse.”
  —Meg, (03:36)

• Dr. Laura’s clarity:

  “The only recommendation I have is you get a legal separation. Not a divorce. A legal separation. You need to take control. He’s an abusive man. It’s not going to change.”
  —Dr. Laura, (08:22)

• On the kids:

  “I don’t think you can be the mother you want to be with this emotional state.”
  —Dr. Laura, (08:48)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:37–04:38: Meg details her family history, marriage struggles, and current emotional turmoil
• 07:46–09:34: Dr. Laura responds with direct advice for legal separation and addresses the true impact on children
• 09:23: Dr. Laura challenges Meg’s rationalization and underscores how even “percentage games” are harmful in abusive situations

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Tone and Approach

• Intimate & Candid: Meg’s vulnerability is met with Dr. Laura’s signature tough-love pragmatism.
• Urgent & Unflinching: Dr. Laura does not mince words; her focus is on safety—emotional and psychological—for both caller and children.
• Empowering: The advice is meant not simply to soothe but to catalyze real-world action and change.

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Concluding Message

Dr. Laura’s guidance in this episode is direct and uncompromising: emotional abuse, no matter how sporadic, cannot be justified by good times or rationalized away by hope for change. The responsibility of the parent is to model self-respect and create a truly safe haven for children—requiring difficult choices but ensuring generational well-being.

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Transcript

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[C]

Thank you. Dr. Laura, how are you today?

[A]

Good. What can I do for you?

[C]

Okay, so obviously this is my first time. I've been listening to you for many, many years as well as my family. So thank you for everything, for your advice. I've been going through know I've been going through quite a bit of well, healing, tr. Healing childhood trauma throughout. You know, I was 45 when I kind of had a little bit of a mental breakdown. And my healing, the healing the family trauma has helped me. But I still have this very tough puzzle piece with my husband that I feel I've gotten rid of so much emotional abuse in my life and I've healed so much and I have finally have peace in my heart. But I'm still struggling with my husband because I love him. We have a beautiful family, a beautiful lifestyle, beautiful, beautiful everything in that sense. But he has a temper and an anger issue and whenever I kind of try to talk to him, he'll jump and Like I feel like a Pac Man. Like I'm like my head spit off. And he'll then come down and then we have a beautiful time together as a family. But then it happens again and it just keeps, you know, for years I couldn't really. I had dreams, I couldn't speak and nobody could hear me. And now I'm just at this point where we healed, quote, unquote for the past year to come back together as a family and try, try as a marital couple. But it's a year and a half later that I've been really, really patient with him and the outbursts have been better, quote, unquote. But it's still happening. And the other day we got into an argument at 7:30 in the morning. He couldn't control himself. The kids were asleep. And I was trying to say, please, please, you know, let's just talk this out. I just wish we could talk quietly or calmly when we have argument arguments and he can't handle that. He can't do it. So therefore I have to wander away from the house. I have to take a walk, I have to do everything I possibly can to have tools in my toolbox. But it's actually, I just don't want to make a mistake now, do I Wait till the kids are 18. I mean they are happy, they are loved, they are, you know, it's a secure environment right now. But me personally, I don't know how much more I can take walking on broken glass. And I'm at this point where, you know, he, you know, he had actually filed for divorce a year ago, but we remedied, we remediate whatever you want to call it, mediated. And then now I'm still kind of dealing with the aftermath of his temper. And he's getting help, but he's, it's just not working. I just feel like this black and white situation, like my heart is so, you know, broken because I love him. But I also am very hurt by his emotional verbal abuse. And he sometimes kind of makes fun of that. He doesn't get take it seriously for me, like when I say you hurt me or you verbally abused me emotionally or talk loud in front of kids. Like, I want this house to be a peaceful, peaceful house. I don't want any yelling. And he the other day was too worried about the golfers across the street from us hearing him yell instead of his own children who were sleeping soundly in their beds at 7:30 in the morning. So that's kind of like everything sort of in a nutshell.

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[A]

My recommendation would be to get an attorney and to file for a legal separation. Get him out of the house. He can go live with his mommy or whoever until he has a year of psychotherapy. And anger this, that. The other thing your kids need. You're deluding yourself if you think your kids are happy. They know exactly what's going on. They hear it. If they can hear it across the street with the golfers, they can hear it when they're in their bedrooms. So you're not doing them any favor by. Ma', am. You said all your stuff. I listened carefully.

[C]

Okay, okay, okay.

[A]

The only recommendation I have is you get a legal separation. Not a divorce. A legal separation. You need to take control. He's an abusive man. It's not going to change. Maybe if he saw that you finally had the strength to throw him out of the house, maybe.

[C]

And you think that's what I just explained?

[A]

I said maybe. Important, but this is not good for the kids, and it's not good for you. And I don't think you can be the mother you want to be with this emotional state. So I think you're delusional. Really? If you think the kids are not impacted by this.

[C]

No, I know they are.

[A]

Well, you made it sound like everything was fine with them. It's just you getting.

[C]

That's what. That's. No, no, no. I appreciate that.

[A]

That is pretty much what you led me to believe. They're very happy. They were sleeping. So you're contributing to an environment which

[C]

is destructive to them, even though half of it, 80% is great, 20% is not.

[A]

You are contributing to an environment which is not healthy for them. And you can play games with percentages.

[C]

Okay, thank you very much.

[A]

So that's my recommendation, A legal separation. Get them out of the house. And the onus is on him.

[C]

Okay, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

[A]

Dr. Laura, my number, 1-800-375-2872. If you like this podcast, be sure to rate it on Apple podcasts or your favorite place to listen to my podcast. Of course. I'd love if you gave me five stars. And be sure to share this podcast with a friend on Facebook or your preferred social media platform, SiriusXM.

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