For me the foot is very distracting. That's because it's a remote part of the subject and it goes all the way to the left, through all that negative space just to be clipped off by the edge of the frame.
The leg isn't a leading line either. Rather the opposite, somewhat blocking the path of the eyes from getting to the subject, leading it towards the foot instead. Both arms of the man are good examples for leading liens the bring your eyes right into the action.
Comparing this to the first picture. The high contrast of the black-white arm to shoulder lines (both sides of the head) are leading lines towards the face (and due to the high contrast very strong ones), which is in focus. The finger is an additional leading line towards the eyes.
What's more distracting in this image is that the toy is brighter than the face.
conclusion:
A cropped off part of a subject is annoying, if other visible parts of the image lead me to it so that I expect to see them eventually as my eyes go through the image. The distraction is the disappointment when this expectation cannot be full filled.
Applying what I said above
goal: make the face the brightest part of the image. eyes of the fewer are drawn into the face for two reasons now: focus and brightnes.
execution: adding a radial gradient layer on the face and used multiply as blendmode.
In LR (which I mainly use for photo editing) one or more adjustment brushes modifying darks, lights and/or exposure will probably give a better result.
Yes I know, horrible execution, but I'm just on gimp at the moment and I have no idea how that works. (The main reason I use it is because I often can't find a way to close it) But you get the idea.
Second one:
goal: include the leading lines of the picture and exclude the detour-to-some-uninteresting-remote-cut-off-part-of-the-subject lines
execution: cropping tighter on the "action", using the father as a frame.
1:1 ratio came a bit as a surprise but works well for me, always worth a try
How long did it take before you noticed that the father's right knee is cut off in an obvious way?
His elbow?
And his right foot, did you spot that?
With this crop, the answer of my subconsciousness to these questions would be something along the lines of "huh? left third of the image? what do you mean...wait, there is a left third of the image indeed, I paid no attention. Man I was so busy trying to figure out what they are holding there. What are they doing? Can you tell me? I'm dying to find it out..."
You get a bit of an exposure problem because he is wearing black and flagging all the light. That's nothing you can change in a candid shot like that, but easily fix in post.
I would like to point out that I really like your images. Thumbs up.
