One of my DC has been involved in an activity this week which has involved driving them backwards and forwards to a venue 20-30 minutes away, sometimes requiring 4 round trips a day as they’ve had morning and evening sessions (and we don’t stay with them for the c.3 hour sessions). I took the week off to facilitate this and it’s been pretty tiring. Some pick ups have been late in the evening and it’s not a very nice drive due to lots of long single track roads with passing places, and some particularly awkward roadworks.
DH was approached by a distant acquaintance about taking their DC there and back on one of the days with only one session, because both he and his wife would be working away from their house. I agreed, but noted (to DH) that in their shoes I would have offered a reciprocal arrangement given the many drop offs and pick ups required across the week. DH said they maybe couldn’t due to having lots of kids and possibly only one car.
When I picked the child up, one parent was home. The child also told me lots about their 2 cars and their older (teen) siblings.
Today, one of these parents arrived at the venue with only one child in their car and commented that they’d followed us from home. They were then angling for me to supervise their child during what was a short break between sessions today. I couldn’t as I wasn’t going to be there and my DC’s grandparents were looking after him.
We then get a text at 9:30 this evening to ask if we can drop off their child tomorrow as they have a “complicated day”. We can’t, as we are not travelling to the venue from home tomorrow.
AIBU to feel quite pissed off? On the one hand, I was / may have been doing the journey anyway, but on the other they clearly could have offered a reciprocal lift and didn’t bother and they would also have happily used me as childcare to avoid an inconvenience to themselves.