allowing sick DD to play??

[JAD]

Sorry to hear that your DD did not feel well.....she is a trooper for playing anyway! Your HC should have let any college coaches watching know that #29 was a little under the weather, but wanted to play anyway since she and her parents drove XX hours to get to the showcase.

 

[29dad]

great idea... if there were actual college coaches at the so-called showcase. Guess a little hail, rain and a few tornados kept them away.

 

[Cannonball]

I second JAD's comment that I am sorry she is under the weather.

There isn't an easy answer to this dilemma. I have seen my dd play sick before and she would have it no other way. Yes, we are the parents but we also have taught her that there is a point where she has to know herself whether she can go or not. We define that by asking her to honestly evaluate whether she will help or hurt her team. I would have failed in the "Father of the Year" category several times. Once, she played just after dislocating her hip. I have the photo of the slide where she did so. It was the game to go to state and when I got there, she was in the circle pitching. She knew I was angry and I saw in her eyes that she needed to be in the circle. Her team went in to extra innings and she went to her coach and told him she could not go anymore. I felt terrible but talking to dd after the game, she knew she could handle playing a lot better than the pain of sitting while the year ended.

 

[Cat5]

No I wouldn't have let her play with the stomach bug or anything that is listed above and I would be pretty upset with a parent that would knowingly let a kid play with something so contagious.
GG

This. Stomach bugs are highly contagious and I would be (and have been) really irritated at parents who knowingly let their child interact with other people when they are carrying gastro bugs. We had a girl come to training (vomited with stomach bug on the way to training) a month before state championships. Seemed like a 5-6 day incubation period between various groups of girls on the team. Was still affecting 3 of them at state and meant that half the team was missing for the practices leading up to state. Not to mention that it went through several households requiring parents to take days off work and siblings to miss school and other activities. All because of a 'soldier on'/'what a trooper' mentality that no one appreciated.

Common colds or kids already on antibiotics I can deal with. Non-contagious injuries that require someone to play through pain or discomfort are not the same and need to be evaluated between a player, their parents & the coaching staff. But stomach bugs...stupidity. Not only can playing with them lead to severe dehydration (among other problems) but they are so highly contagious it doesnt make sense not to stay at home.

Hopefully no one else your daughter came into contact with gets sick. Sorry to hear she was unwell- I hope that next time there is a gastro bug running through your family you make a different decision.
ETA- Just re-read this and it sounds harsher than I intended. I know you feel bad already and my post wasnt to make you feel worse, just to give a bigger perspective on how these things affect others. My DS has an autoimmune disease so Im probably more sensitive than I should be about these kinds of issues.

 

[BaldNBeautiful]

Every kid is different, and after you get to know them you have different "rules." Plus as a parent you have to learn as you go. All three of mine learned early on that they had the power to pull themselves out of a game, but we (well OK, their Mom) had veto power over allowing them to play.
DD1 caught in a HS tourney in Summerville SC one year, had strep and a fever all day, plus a hairline fracture in her throwing hand. The only ones that knew she was sick were the pitcher, and her coaches. She would not let anyone get too close, since she was contagious. Coaches found out about the hand the next week, and threw a fit on her (kind of). BUT IT WAS OUR DD's CHOICE AND DECISION TO PLAY OR SIT.
Her pitcher routinely played hurt, and one of her best performances was in a tourney, threw all five or six games with a fever. Couldn't do it with kidney stones though!
Were we bad parent for allowing it? I don't think so, but opinions will no doubt vary. All I know is the team needed them, the players felt they needed to play (and did so) and they found they could expect much more of themselves than many of their teammates did.
After that there were fewer "I can't practice today, my tummy hurts" complaints in the dugout.

 

[James Smith]

All three of mine learned early on that they had the power to pull themselves out of a game, but we (well OK, their Mom) had veto power over allowing them to play.

This year I finally got DD to say she needed to sit down, stop asking and tell the coach she is sitting on the bench. DW is in charge of DD playing too.

 

[fusionmom]

I try to live by the thought of...if that is the worst thing that happened today, then it was a pretty good day! Mine have played through all kinds of "bugs". My oldest daughter even played with mono, though we didn't know it. It was right in the heaviest part of our season, played a lot of games and then on to nationals. She was SO tired, but she had been working, too, so figured she just needed some days off. When we got back, she was still dragging so took her in and they told us she had mono and had had it long enough that it was almost out of her system! Yup ~ I felt like a terrible parent, but she survived and so did we!

As far as being contagious...our kids are exposed to a huge amount of germs each and every day in school, at stores, at extra-curricular events. Your DD's teammates had probably already been exposed. Remember, most of the time a person is contagious well before the physical symptoms start to show!

 

[ArkFastpitch]

I've been unfortunate enough to be in the situation where just as we are taking the dugout I hear the unmistakable sound of puke hitting the concrete behind me. Then shortly after, Mom trying to trying to explain how she thought Susie was over it. I understand things happen but its always best to give a coach a heads up and let him decide.

 

[GatorGirl]

At the end of the day, playing with injuries may help the "team" on one day, but may hurt the child for the rest of their lives. I have a nephew who played lacrosse and has had two shoulder surgeries before the age of 21 and now he really can't do much in the way of sports at all because he played through injuries.

The high of winning is great today, but the low of injuries could always be in our way.

Softball/baseball is always about the next play, game or season. Why would we jeopardize that for today?

GG

 

[ArkFastpitch]

I agree GG.. Live to fight another day. You can never be at the top of your game when you are sick and that will greatly increase the risk of injury. Just not worth it.