To the editor:

A few days ago, I stopped at Clements’ Marketplace as I do several times a week. It is not unusual to see someone soliciting funding for some worthy cause or other, and what I saw that day was by no means unusual, but very disturbing to me.

There was a father and son collecting funds for the child’s football team. The father was slumped in a chair and had his full attention on his smartphone. The little boy, about 6 years old, was trying his best to amuse himself while being totally ignored by his father. I went into the store, came out about 20 minutes later, and the father was still absorbed with his phone.

What kind of message was this father sending to his son? Certainly, that the phone was more important to him than helping collect money for the football team, but more troubling, the phone was more important than him!

The scenario made me sad for a myriad of reasons, not least of which was the boy’s safety (he could have run into the parking lot and the father would not have known), but as a parent, he should be mature enough to pay attention to this little boy who is looking to him as a role model and who needs his attention, not to have to compete with a smartphone.

Diane Gerardi

72 Greylock Drive

Portsmouth