A board member?

After all the drama with Headstart this year, last night the Executive Director asked me if I would accept a nomination to be on their board.

Jigga what? 

Let’s review the history :

• Spot got fired.
• I rebelled against the stupid AWOL Policy
• Got demeaning, nasty emails from Headstart
• Got nowhere by bringing the issue up at The Policy Committee
• The Whooping Cough hysteria & subsequent removal of daughter from Head Start.

A few weeks ago I was invited to be a representative from the Policy Committee on an interviewing team for the new director of my daughter’s old daycare.

ME:  Well, technically, I’m no longer a parent at Headstart, so I don’t think I can be on the interview team.

HR DIRECTOR: Oh. Well we can have you as a community representative/former parent.

 The fact that the center director was being replaced tweaked a mean streak of satisfaction/frustration in me. I didn’t want my complaints to get anyone fired. I just wanted the policy changed, and Spot rehired.  But had my voice actually been heard? Did they think my opinions were actually valuable? Did I  possess some tiny nugget of…… dare I say……power?

The organization I had grown to hate so much was asking for my fledgling expertise. I thought they had thrown a party the day I took LB out of their center. I figured my name would be added to the “most dramatic parent of all time” list at the annual barbecue.

So I joined the interview team. I wasn’t shy. I spoke up. Igave my reccomendations for who I thought they should hire. It felt good, and a week later, they asked me if I would like to be on another interview team.

HR DIRECTOR : We just thought you brought up really good points, and everyone loved having your perspective.

I may have been OD-ing on the compliment, but I agreed to witness another round of interviews. Headstart was officially stroking my ego. They were sucking up to me. They liked me, they really liked me!

This eventually led to them offering me a spot on the Board. The HR Director initially made a fuss because it meant I had to quit the Policy Committee and they really wanted me on it. So essentially they were fighting over me *insert head getting bigger and bigger here*.

WAIT.

What just happened? Didn’t I say I was DONE with Headstart? That I thought their organization was a shoddy excuse for childcare establishment? That they treated their employees like Fast Food workers? That they treated parents like they should kiss the ground they walked on?

I was high on the drug of acknowledgement. The pill of appreciation. The needle of value. I was definitely toking the power pipe. I didn’t know what to say. Did I really want to be involved in this? I had been trying as hard as I could to get away from it.

So I told them I would think about it. What good would being on a board of directors do me? And why do they want a 27-year-old, hell-raising single mom on this board? There must be alterior motives. Unless they really do value me.

Ugh I’m such a Pisces.