Brooke de Lench, the founder of Mom’s Team, has recently been exposed to an interesting question about youth sports; “Are parents who allow young athletes to play contact or collision sports guilty of child abuse?” A very weighty question, however as silly as it appears to most of us, a valid question.
In light of the recent question de Lench wrote a post about it;
On the other hand, while I personally think Dr. Cantu’s recommendation is worthy of serious consideration, I don’t believe parents who allow their kids to start or continue to play collision sports before middle school are engaging in child abuse.
I could not agree more with this statement. There are instances when the line may be crossed; when a parent KNOWINGLY places a child in harm’s way through sports. Yes, this does happen I have witnessed several attempts by overzealous dad’s and mom’s. Fortunately for the child there were people in place to prevent this from happening – another need for athletic trainers and educated coaches.
The case of “child abuse” would be rare, but parents should know all the risks associated with anything their child is going to be undertaking. The risk of any injury is high in sports, this includes concussions, it is part of the territory. We are not going to ban sports, way too many positives, but minimizing the risks through education is a great first step.
The Concussion Blog 
As more than one healthcare practitioner has said to me, moms are often the ones who pick up on their child having sustained a head injury. In cases where the child is reluctant to report symptoms or does not recognize them, moms and dads may notice those sometimes subtle changes in behaviors or personality that others (coaches,trainers etc) may miss. It is truly sad and call it what you will but irresponsible when parents don’t raise the flag and seek medical advice when they know something is wrong with their child. This happens far too often especially in the world of elite junior athletics. Parents need to dig deep and ask thselves why? As this blog points out over and over the big ugly “C” word is not the problem it is the lack of understanding that leads to under reporting and the mismanagement of known trauma that are the potential career enders.