I think this is a piece more about the helplessness of watching a child disrespecting his parent, who happens to be the child of the writer. So this is a parent defending her child from her grandchild. I would note, however, that it's written as an open letter, not identifying the family, and sounds like a proper rant of a frustrated parent.

Regardless of the spanking issue - something that I don't think happened at the hands of Mom and Dad, despite Grandmama thinking that might have been a solution - there are clear problems that have obviously contributed to the kid's alleged disrespectful behaviours, not the least of which is " ... the bought and paid for Bronco your grandfather gifted to you when you turned 15 so you didn't have to work so hard to buy your first car."

This kid was raised in a family where the mom has issues of abandonment, residual trauma over what looks like a messy divorce, guilt and stress over the acceptance by her kids of her new relationship (forced on kids who have no say as to who moves into their house), and grandparents who clearly have money, and have made it incredibly confusing as to whether or not the grandkids will ever be able to count on their support. (i.e. 'Here, have a car, but you won't get anything when we die.')

Not to mention a Grandmama who doesn't seem to remember/know what it's like raising a teenager. Because everything in this sounds so perfectly normal for every teen I've ever raised. Mine all got past this, without the passive aggressive threats.