Mom Wants Injured Daughter to SUCK IT UP

I find it disturbing that the youth sports macho culture tells girls as well as boys to "suck it up" and "play like a man" while injured.  What kind of long-term damage could your daughter's teammate sustain to her finger if she plays with it broken?  Could continued play prevent it from ever healing properly or result in the early onset of arthritic changes, so she has pain in the finger for the rest of her life, even if she takes two Aleve every day?

And worse yet, if your daughter's teammate is being asked to play with a broken finger, and her mother is letting her, will she be asked to play with symptoms of a concussion, running the risk of serious injury or death from second impact syndrome, or, at the very least, increasing the risk of another concussion, and another, increasing the likelihood of long-term cognitive deficits, depression, early onset of Alheimer's?

This is the kind of winning at all costs mentality that too often pervades today's youth sports and that needs to be changed. The fact that you are afraid to contact the coaches suggests that you fear that there would be repercussions for your daughter if you spoke up.  We have to get to the point in this country where no one is afraid to speak up about keeping our kids safe.  Until we do, we need mothers like you, Pragmatic Mom, to continue speaking up.

Some coaches should be more sensible.

Good point Rick, however you have to realize that high school can't staff a trainer to oversee injuries. The school certainly does not want that liability. So it's in the hands of the people it should be, the PARENTS. In today's world, we've shifted so much responsibility away from parents it's ridiculous. That's why things are always the school's fault, or somone else's fault.
I know many on this site champion the use of full time athletic trainers to be everyone all the time. Also remember, even a physician can only advise a patient what to do. I'm sure if you had a physician respond they'd be frustrated because many of their patients do not follow their advice.
From a football standopoint, kids play with broken fingers all the time. Some (lineman) even play with broken hands. But it's THEIR decision, not someone elses.

I agree about not sitting out "every little injury". However, in girls' lacrosse the only protective gear for the field players are face and mouth guards. Its boys lacrosse which allows a lot of contact that I believe requires gloves. The girl said her finger, even though it was taped, was hurting throughout the next day when she played in the playoffs. I know for my other daughter who injured her hip in soccer, we waited until she recovered (6 weeks) before she played again. That was two years ago and she has had no repeat of her injury. What I am seeing are kids playing too soon after an injury, either on their own or their parents' decision, and getting reinjured and in the worst case having to give up the sport. My other issue which I didn't address in the first positing was why the parent felt she needed to share with the entire team and coaches her "suck it up" comment.