Children’s Footprints in The Concrete

A professor of psychology had no children of his own, but whenever he saw a neighbor scolding a child for some wrongdoing, he would say, “you should love your boy, not punish him.” One hot summer afternoon the professor was doing some repair work on a concrete driveway leading to his garage. Tired out after several hours of work, he laid down the trowel, wiped the perspiration from his forehead, and started toward the house. Just then out of the corner of his eye he saw a mischievous little boy putting his foot into the fresh concrete. He rushed over, grabbed him, and was about to spank him severely when a neighbor leaned from a window and said, “Watch it, Professor! Don’t you remember? You must ’love’ the child!” At this, he yelled back furiously, “I do Love him in the abstract, but not in the concrete!”