From the article: The mother told police she was about 5 feet away from her son when she heard a loud crash.
She heard not saw.
Where does it say that the child was pulling or even touching the mirror?
Mom, who SHOULD have seen, only HEARD. No one knows what the child was doing, do they. The article DOES say: was apparently playing near the 5-foot-tall mirror
OMG, you are being utterly ridiculous.
With what little is known about what actually happened, and going only off of what is written in the article, without bias to one side or the other, the word "near" should also be underlined.
Everybody here, and anyone who's been a parent, knows that things can happen in a millisecond - EVEN if the child is attached to your hip. You can't look at them every single second you're in public.
In unguarded moments, I might mention that horrible feeling of panic that sets in when your small child has gotten out of sight. Such a confession ALWAYS draws a "me, too, isn't it awful?" response. You are the first person I have EVER spoken to about this that apparently hasn't experienced this.
Times must be different. Funny thing is, when I was growing up (you seem to be about the age of my parents), my parents were MUCH less protective of my brothers and me than I am with my own children. No seat belts, M-80's, we could wander the yards of the neighborhood at will, waiting in the car while Mom shopped.
And this was the 70's, not the 50's. The funny thing is, i don't know who was the irregular one, you or my mom. Either way, no big deal. To each his own!