It took a lot more than a split second for the kid to get away, the mother was pre-occupied with other things.
I’m not saying she wasn’t preoccupied .
Not saying she wasn’t watching him close .
I said that people should leash their small children because even if you watch them like hawks they can break free and slip away in seconds .
Even the best parents sometimes make a mistake. My Mother just may have been the most perfect person I have ever known. I mean that BTW.
During WWII while Daddy was in Europe, Mother took her four children and moved back in with her parents. Her Sister did the same thing with her kids while her husband was overseas.
Now Grandpa Mac had over a thousand acres and a dozen sharecroppers but they were not all full. Aunt Susie stayed with her kids in one of the outbuildings. Mother stayed in the home.
One day Mother put all four of her children down for a nap. Their Grandma was there too to look after them. After they went to sleep, Mother walked the 100 yards to visit with her Sister.
Evelyn my sister would have been around 3 at the time. She woke up and decided to go look for Mother. She knew where she was so she walked over to Aunt Susie’s. On the way she stepped on a large rattlesnake, one so large that had he struck her, she probably would have died. It must have been cool and the snake still not active and he let her go. When Mother and Aunt Susie say the snake they almost had a fit. Of course they killed it.