On our walk to school, my third-grader and I talk about all kinds of things — his ideas for inventions that will end climate change and provide him with a never-ending supply of candy; what superpowers we would pick if we only got one; what would happen if pancakes were alive.

Yesterday, walking down our street, I noted with satisfaction that the sidewalk had been cleaned up. Over a year ago, our neighbor, who used to bring us soup and always brightened at seeing the kids, passed away. I don’t know who bought her house, but they have never lived there. The house has been under perpetual renovation and the entire time, the sidewalk has been flooded. Recently it had become a swampy, impassable mess, filled with slippery leaves and a few inches of water. They didn’t attempt to clean it up, but did put out orange cones to warn people not to walk there. Other neighbors and parents who walk their kids to school complained to me about it, and I contacted our town councilor who put me in touch with the building inspector.

“Look,” I said to my kid, “we can walk on the sidewalk now! I complained to the town about it two weeks ago and they promised it would get cleaned up, and it did. I only wish I had done it sooner.”

He said, “It’s like the time you helped Arun.” Helped Arun? I had no memory of this.

“Remember,” he said, “another kid was making Arun buy him snacks every day using his lunch account.”

Now it sounded familiar. My son had told me that his friend was being bullied at lunch. I talked to their teacher and asked her to intervene and notify the lunch monitors.

“And it stopped,” he said. “I told you, and you told the teacher, and that made it stop. That gave me a lot of confidence. Now I feel like if I see something wrong, I should tell somebody.”

“You did tell somebody!” I said. “You told me.”

“Yes,” he said, “but I didn’t know you could really help. I was just telling you. I thought that the lunch monitors or teachers already knew and didn’t care.”

“They might not have noticed,” I said. “And even if they did notice, they might not realize it was a problem. Sometimes nobody does anything unless you speak up.”

“I know that,” he said. “I learned it from you.”

Not our usual conversation about pancakes and superpowers. You never know what is going to make an impression on your kid.