I lot of people who live less than perfect lives can give perfect advice. Why? #1 they know the consequences of their own stupid behavior, & #2 they aren't emotionally involved in OTHER people's choices.
If we could remove emotions like love, guilt, shame, etc. from our decision making we'd all do better more often, but as humans, most of us can't completely rid ourselves of emotion-based decision making.
I'm not fond of Dr. Laura; I too find her judgemental and self-rightous, but..... I think in this instance, her answers (outside of blasting the mom which was wrong) were right on and logical - If the grandparents are disrespectful of the parents, then they do not deserve to see their grandkids, and if they do, it should be limited (like family parties) and never unsupervised. Add to that the scary (you're all doomed) talk to young children, which is inappropriate at best, and they've sealed their coffins as far as I'm concerned.
Any person who is abusive to children needs to be limited, whether that abuse is physical, emotional, psychological or sexual. As parents we DO have the right to set limits on the behaviors of others around our kids. This type of issue came up in another thread this weekend as a grandmother got angry because the daughter didn't want her child to witness her shunning. Same answer - Grandma abide by the limits that I, the parent, set or don't be around.
Unfortunately this can be hard for a lot of people for a number of reasons, not to mention the GUILT that will be laid upon them for demanding that THEIR rights be preserved. It is hard to move from the role of juvenile child to adult child in the parent/child relationship but BOTH parties need to change. Sometimes its the kid that has to make the first move. Other reasons this may be tough is if the grandparents are the babysitter. It's so easy to be outside the situation and say "find another sitter," but that isn't always so easy.
Hopefully, the mom involved got the point, despite the unjustified abuse she took.