Dishing up a bad example

Re “Spokane smugglers make clean getaways,” April 6

Reading about the working mother who felt she had to go to a different state to get high-phosphate soap and squeaky-clean dishes, I thought of the example she was setting for her children.

First, that it’s OK to break the law when you are slightly inconvenienced by something trivial like soap suds.

Second, that it’s OK to not do something for the greater good because of that inconvenience. Third, that adaptation and problem-solving (in this case, learning how to wash dishes in a new way) are not important skills.

Fourth, that she doesn’t care enough about her children’s future to do what she can to help preserve an ecosystem that her children interact with every day.

I’ve used low-phosphate soap for years. My dishes are clean. I wish people would stop and think before modeling this sort of behavior to their children. We all live here, after all.

J. Scott Grant

Los Angeles