CiviSMS merge option prior to sending?

Question

When exporting search results or preparing a New Mailing in Civi Mail, there is an option to merge contacts from the same household/address (export) or remove duplicate emails (CiviMail).

1. Does a similar merging option exist for a New SMS in CiviSMS?
2. If not, what is best practice for preventing multiple SMS going to duplicate phone numbers?

Backstory: Our organization has a large number of families, so parents will often register their children with the parent's mobile number. Thus the high probability of duplicate mobile numbers for mass SMS.

Answer 1

1. It appears there isn't a merge option for SMS.
2. At present, I am exporting my search results and/or group, finding/removing the duplicate mobile phone numbers in Excel (via Conditional Formatting), and re-importing the remaining contacts and numbers as a new group that I can then target for the New SMS.

I don't know of a purely Civi way of doing this, but if someone has other ideas, I'd love to hear them.