Anyone got children who are left handed or left handed themselves?

[MUM2BLESS]

I have four kids. Two right handed and two left handed.

I found it really fascinating when I realised two were left handed. I noticed today that there is a left handed club you can join.

I know it seems a bit tricky to write with your left hand without smudging, any tips please

What left handed equipment would you recommend?

As a righted person I appreciate any ideas and suggestions.

[expatinscotland]

I am left-handed and DS is left-handed, but DD1 was right-handed and DD2 is as well.

[BackforGood]

Left handed scissors are a must.
A left handed tin opener, when they are of an age to need to be opening tins.
Other than that, we're pretty adaptable

[ouryve]

I'm a leftie, so is DH.

DS1 is a rightie (evident from just 9 months old) and DS2 is ambidextrous, but beginning to do most things with his right hand.

Some people say left handed scissors are a must, I hate them. I use a mouse or trackpad with either hand - often find it useful if I'm jotting something down at the same time.

The only ink I smudge is from the dreaded fountain pen, though I don't think schools are so snooty about insisting you use one as back in my day. I find rollerball pens & gel pens don't work very well because i hold them at the wrong angle. Otherwise, I just don't think about it (until I have to turn a wooden spoon upside down to stir with because the corner is in the wrong place!)

[ajandjjmum]

We have never bought anything for DS (now 20) who is left handed, except for golf clubs!

He had an amazing Year 3 teacher who was left-handed, and bless her, she went and got books to help him write more comfortably, and it isn't a problem for him at all. He has a left-handed cheque book now.

[NellyJob]

for writing you can get a pen with a left handed grip,
here it is

[beela]

I am left handed but disappointed to realise that DS (2 next week) is looking more and more right handed by the day.

I also hate left handed scissors. I don't think that they were so common 30 years ago and so I learnt to cut with my right hand, and have found that right handed scissors are always available whereas left handed ones are not.

When I write I hold my hand just below the line of words I am writing and the ink doesn't smudge.

In fact, the only thing I have trouble with is a cake fork

[Viviennemary]

I'm right handed, DH left handed. DD left handed, DS right handed. Only thing I couldn't do was to teach DD how to knit. I couldn't. DS didn't ask to be taught!!

[pengymum]

DD1 is a leftie and I bought her a lefthanded ruler but she doesn't use it
Was thinking of getting leftie scissors though, now not so sure

[beela]

My mum couldn't teach me to knit either! Luckily my lovely reception teacher was left handed and she taught me.

[BackforGood]

My lovely Mum painstakingly worked out how to reverse everything so she could teach me to knit left handed, but I soon realised that when you got stuck / needed help, no-one could help you (!) so I switched fairly quickly to knitting the 'normal' way and don't have a problem with that.

Yes - cake forks are a pain, but, tbh, you can probably go quite a long way in life without needing to use a cakefork .
Potato peelers used to be another impossibility, but nowadays they all seem to be the ones that aren't either handed.
I do like a kettle that has the "window" on both sides, as otherwise that is always on the wrong side, but none of these are insurmountable. Indeed, we have an electric tin-opener nowadays that can be used with either hand or none

[Poppystar1]

I don't think I ever had any special equipment for left handed people - as beela says, leftie scissors etc weren't around much when I was a child in the 70s. The only thing I can think of is crocheting; I had to put the instructions in front of the mirror to get it! Though my brother is also a leftie and apparently had some initial problems when learning to read and write, as his natural tendency was to go from right to left.

[Poppystar1]

Another thing (very small but still a bit annoying) is that mugs are always designed so that the person drinking from it only has the picture facing them if they are right handed!

[ICutMyFootOnOccamsRazor]

Left handed scissors are great. but I was too late getting a left handed can opener - I can't use mine at all and continue using a right handed one in a really awkward way, instead.

YY to the kettles and mugs thing. Also measuring cups. Very annoying.

[headfairy]

My sister is left handed and used to write everything in mirror fashion. She had to have remedial writing classes which she's mortified about because she's very intelligent and high achieving.

I'm fairly sure ds is left handed. He's just turned 5 and has been showing strong leftie tendencies for a couple of years now. He occasionally uses his right hand, but I've been very careful to let him choose. When I hand him a pen, I usually put it on the table to let him choose which hand to pick it up with. We haven't got left handed scissors, he's used normal scissors at school with no reported problems, but maybe they've got leftie ones and they've just not mentioned it.

Dd is only 2.8 but is almost certainly right handed, she uses her right hand for everything. I'm a rightie too as is dh.

[ThatVikRinA22]

im left handed - i turn my paper at a 45 degree angle to avoid smudges - it works - ive seen some folk who are left handed who write really oddly, kind of "hooking" their hand over the top of the paper but i just turn my paper at an angle.

[TheWoollybacksWife]

DD2 is left handed - the rest of us are right handed. She has a left handed pen but uses right handed scissors. She gets grumpy if the table is set for right handers by her little brother - but gets grumpier when I tell her that the only way to avoid confusion is for her to do it herself all the time.

I taught her to knit but she knits right handed.

At primary school her teacher was careful to seat her on the left hand side of a desk so she didn't bump writing arms with the right handed person sat next to her.

I worked in an office with four men in my first job. All of them were left handed. They teased me for being in a minority

[diplodocus]

I'm left handed, and have never used left handed scissors or anything out of the ordinary. The only think I would say is that when they're little make sure they learn to write with a good pencil grip - I learnt to write with a "claw" which is much more of a problem if you're left handed as you smudge everything, and by the time anyone noticed it was too late for me to change.

[Waspie]

I'm left handed. Never managed to learn to knit, although I can crochet. Cake forks are a mystery I never bothered trying to resolve. A left handed can opener is useful but now I only buy cans that have ring pulls which is easier still

These days things seem to be far more ambidextrous - my kettle has a water guage at the back rather than on either side and my iron has the cable coming out of the middle rather then on the side for example.

I can do a lot of things right handed though. I used to be as good at writing right handed as left, which was useful during exams although it does show how poor my handwriting is!

Both my grandmothers were left handed, my parents and sister are all right handed. My son is right handed too.

[LizLemon007]

I'm right handed with one RH child and one LH child. Funny thing (to me) is that their dad is also RH, so it's skipped a generation. Children have one LH'd grandparent on each side. It must be like blue eyes?

[babesdontlie]

I'm left handed an have always been able to write neatly.
The only left handed thing I have is some pinking shears but I also use right handed dressmaking shears.

I knit right handed and sew left handed. again, both neatly!

[lljkk]

My experience of lefties (in this family) is they usually refuse to use LH equipment.

To avoid smudging, I would like to encourage them to write upside down & backwards if I could. I think writing backwards they take to easily, it's the upside down bit I wouldn't know how to teach a very young child. And presumably teachers would throw hands up in horror if I tried.

[lljkk]

Oh, no,I'm getting it wrong, it's upside down but forwards (in the words, R to L which is the backwards part) that is natural for lefties. See why I wouldn't try to teach it.

[ThatVikRinA22]

ive never bothered with anything aimed specifically at lefties either - i just learned to adapt but im in my 40s so i guess back when i was at school things like left handed scissors just didnt exist.

i use both hands for different things now.

[5madthings]

dp and i are both left handed, out of our 5 children one is left handed, the littlest one is too young to tell, the others are all right handed.

the only thing we had issues with was that they get the children to use little white boards at school to write on and ds3 the left handed child couldnt use them as as he wrote he smudged it off, the school gave him a clipboard and paper instead :)

dp and i both turn our paper to the side to write and dont do the hook hand thing, we have taught ds4 to do the same.

we have a pair of left handed scissors in the house but we can both use right handed ones fine and tbh dp and i are both quite good at using either hand.

[Ineedalife]

I have 3 Dd's and 2 of them are left handed. I am allegedly right handed but can use either for everything except writing.

The Dd's use left handed scissors and Dd3 uses a left handed stabilo pen.
Dd3 has hypermobile joints and motor issues so writing is hard for her but Dd1 has lovely writing. They have both been taught to turn their paper.