My daughter and 3 of her friends (A,
R & T) play netball for for a team across the city every Wednesday. The mums take it in turns each week to collect them from their same school, make tea and deliver them to netball. It's 40 min trip for them but only 25 for me.
A' Mum messaged the group today to say A's & R's younger sisters are starting at the earlier session for younger players and she'd asked if the 4 older girls can help so they can all go together. However the coach apparently only needs 3 helpers (A,R&T all helped last year for Duke of Edinburgh and are doing the same this year - my daughter helped elsewhere as there are only 3 helper spots each year).
My daughter is crushed as netball tea & the 40 min sing along in the car is the highlight of her week, and she knows she'll be missing out. I'd have thought the logical/legal (there'll be 6 people in 1 car) thing to do would be to have 2 groups - the 4 older and 2 younger at different houses. But that might be too much hassle. I get that the 3 helped out at the younger session last year but it was on a different day so wasn't an issue.
My daughter is 14 and we discussed possible options like inviting another classmate over once a week or asking another netball player if they'd like to lift share, but the fact is it's not the same, and will likely seem like retaliation using someone else - the last thing we want is to hurt someone else. And we agree we want to remain close friends with R&T at the very least as they are her closest friends.
I just can't work out how to respond to the WhatsApp message or how to go from here. I'm trying to model best practice but I feel very disappointed.