To be a child is to know what carefree is.
Even under the ever watchful eyes of a parent, the default is to exist with reckless abandon.

It’s not a malicious lack of responsibility. Rather-responsibility is a foreign concept for small ones who are endowed to the experience of a “traditional” childhood.

Be kind.
Share your toys.
Use your manners.
Pick up after yourself.
Eat your vegetables.

But there are things to be done with a lack of self consciousness, before the fear of judgement and humiliation nest somewhere in the core of your psyche.
Moments of whimsy and delight that slowly dwindle until they only whisper to your heart in moments of nostalgia.

I play silent witness to these moments when I watch my own children.
Running wild armed, ganglied legged and scuffed knees.
Sing song squeals.
Wheels turning-churning imagination into ideas.