I fell over - I didn’t ’have a fall’!

Sorry to hear that Witzend - take it easy today . Btw 20 lengths is quite impressive .
I never learnt to swim 😩

Hope you're OK this morning Witzend as sometimes it's the next day our bodies are stiff and achy after falling over .

Yes, why is it our little GC ‘fell over in the playground today’ but if it’s Granny, she ‘had a fall when out shopping’?

🤷‍♀️

Hope you feel OK now Witzend no ill effects from falling. It's only as we get older we ' have a fall' I agree . Good to have kind people around to help.

Smileless2012

Hope you're OK this morning Witzend as sometimes it's the next day our bodies are stiff and achy after falling over .

Very pleased to say no after-effects at all today!

I just hope the two kind young people who instantly helped me up didn’t tell anyone later that they’d helped some poor old dear who’d ’had a fall’ 😱

Sorry Witzend, hope you are ok, tbh I think is the shock of it that is sometimes hard to shake off.
Yes ‘having a fall’ is a medical term usually for someone of older years who has a fall due to disabilities or an illness, I know because when my DH ‘has a fall’ it is due to a lack of balance caused by a stroke. Is not meant to be used widely when an older person is simply careless and ends up on her bum, but it does seem to be more commonly used.

Hmmmm…….renaming the ‘Falls Team’ to the ‘Fallen Over Team’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. 😂

Glad you are fine after you fell over! It’s so blooming easy to do especially with our ghastly pavements and kerbs!

Calendargirl

Yes, why is it our little GC ‘fell over in the playground today’ but if it’s Granny, she ‘had a fall when out shopping’?

🤷‍♀️

Because young children are forever falling over as they scamper and toddle and charge about but some old people, who have had a lifetime of being very good at not falling over even if they mis-step, as the OP did, do, on average, fall more often than younger adults - falls that they wouldn't have had if they were still younger.

People's balance deteriorates as they get older. One doesn't 'bounce' as well as one did when younger.

Bone density and muscle mass deteriorate with age too.

It all makes having falls/falling - whichever phrase one prefers - more of an issue when one is older.

Making a fuss about the words people use because it 'feels like' a reference to one's advanced age is just silly in my opinion. Nobody is trying to insult anyone by a reference to "having a fall".

No, nobody’s trying to insult anyone, Baggs, but ‘having a fall’ is generally associated with being a somewhat doddery old thing, and since I’m (so far anyway!) very far from doddery I wouldn’t like to think of anyone saying I’d ‘had a fall’.

There is a passive tone to 'having a fall' so the phrase does not apply to Witzend's accident-----she is obviously fit and compos mentis and simply was not paying attention.

'Having a fall' is like 'having a bad cold' when it's passive like when falling down is caused by low blood pressure or some other pathology.

Witzend

No, nobody’s trying to insult anyone, Baggs, but ‘having a fall’ is generally associated with being a somewhat doddery old thing, and since I’m (so far anyway!) very far from doddery I wouldn’t like to think of anyone saying I’d ‘had a fall’.

That's right. When an old person falls it is important to distinguish between a 'went flying' sort of fall and a sudden loss of consciousness. Anybody any age can trip and fall, but old people especially do get sudden low blood pressure.

I don’t care what it’s called, I just don’t want to do it!

I call it doing a Norman Wisdom. Or doing a Norman for short. But you have to be old to understand it.

A friend of mine has frequent falls. He doesn’t trip over anything. GP cannot diagnose a particular reason. He does not lose consciousness. Sometimes he is fine when he gets up, but it depends what surface he falls on or whether he hits against anything as he falls. But I have seen him ‘ have a fall’, the best phrase for his incidents.
I have taken the precaution of getting contact details not just for his son who lives miles away, but for a local neighbour too, in case he needs immediate support.

I have dyspraxia. going base over apex is something I have done at least once a year for the last 80 years. I definitely fall over, usually in a spectacular fashion, nothing passive about my falls.

However many years ago I taught myself to relax into falls when they happen so I rarely damage myself in any way.

Tend to agree with Baggs. Not worth worrying about what people might have said or of being thought old.

Some years ago I fell over at the dog groomers - defintely didn't 'have a fall' - and broke my arm. Waiting for an ambulance I was highly entertained to hear that the code for an accident for any female over sixty was 'Nan down'.

20 lengths-I'm very impressed !
Anyone of us can fall at anytime,but when you are of a certain age - it becomes a fall!

Witzend

No, nobody’s trying to insult anyone, Baggs, but ‘having a fall’ is generally associated with being a somewhat doddery old thing, and since I’m (so far anyway!) very far from doddery I wouldn’t like to think of anyone saying I’d ‘had a fall’.

Perhaps you were 'Throwing a shape' rather than having a fall !

Esmay

20 lengths-I'm very impressed !
Anyone of us can fall at anytime,but when you are of a certain age - it becomes a fall!

It’s not a very big pool though - only 20m at David Lloyd.

I always connect 'having falls with frail people, of any age whose balance and lack of strength in their muscles means they can collapse at any moment. Those people who when out of the house use a walking frame or rollator.

Whereas to fall over means that you actively tripped over something, turned your ankle, stepped backwards off a stool into thin air or other action that resulted in being spread eagled on the ground.

Wouldn’t even say you fell over. You tripped on an obstacle.

My husband, on the other hand, did “have a fall”. Down like a stone, no idea why, can recall very little, serious injuries, in hospital for 3 weeks.

I remain surprised that anyone minds someone else describing their... misfortune.... as having a fall.

I've had multiple falls and tumbles thoughout my life, many of them caused when running up stairs at school, many more cantering about on mountains. I've fallen off my bike a few times, on icy roads for example, and I've been knocked off it by other vehicles three times. I have fainted or nearly fainted a number of times 'in public' as well, always for a reason such as shock after what minibaggs would call a "nastident".

I simply don't care how anyone else describes these mishaps. It doesn't seem to me to be important. If people want to think me old and doddery as I become so, it won't bother me in the slightest. Why would it? Especially as, in all cases of the mishaps I've experienced, the immediate reaction of anyone has been helpfulness.

If people want to think in patronising terms about me, they're welcome. That's about them, not me.

I'm beginning to think that minding what one thinks someone else is thinking, finding kindness patronising and bothering about the difference between falling and having a fall is about lack of self-confidence - even perhaps a certain physical 'fragility' that one doesn't want to be noticed - more than anything else.

I am less strong than I used to be, slower and less flexible than I used to be, more bothered by the arthritis I've had all my adult life. When it starts to become obvious, I just hope people are patient and as helpful as I've generally found them. They can use whatever expressions they like if they wish to talk about it.

Free speech and freely.