Left hander holding knife and fork in the "wrong" hands

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Is this important? He's seven. I am getting fed up of asking him to swap them round and am tempted just to let him get on with eating with them in the "wrong" hands. It's taken long enough to persuade him not to just use his fingers.....

[SurprisinglyCurvaceousPirate]

Do you mean he's got his knife in his left hand and fork in the right?

Cutlery is a difficult one, I hold mine in the 'right' hands but then when I have a dish that requires a fork and a spoon I'm buggered !

I really wouldn't worry - being a left hander in a right handed world can be tough so I think if he's using cutlery and he's found a way that's comfortable then let him be .

[Mummynumber2]

Do you mean the wrong way because he's left handed or usi g them as a right handed person would? I really wouldn't worry either way. Dss is left handed and eats perfectly well right handed. I think, as far as I've worked out, that's quite common.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Yes, I mean he has the knife in the left and the fork in the right.

Husband is left handed but he has cutlery in "normal" hands, as do most other lefties that I've seen.

[DidntChaKnow]

I let my left handed son hold his knife and fork in the 'wrong' hands (pisses off his right handed brother who prefers holding cutlery that way!)

I think if he's found a way that he's comfortable with then leave him to it :)

[WheresVinick]

My right handed DH eats with his knife and fork in the 'wrong' hands. No-one ever notices (and he eats perfectly neatly). I wouldn't worry about it.

[ceeveebee]

I am left handed and hold my knife in my left hand, I thought all lefties did?
Why does it matter btw?

[out2lunch]

no

it is not important

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

I'm tempted just to let him get on with it. Just thinking about "table manners" and all that nonsense, certainly his Granny won't like it!

[GsyPotatoPieEyed]

Totally agree with SCP.

Fwiw I'm right handed but prefer using my cutlery the 'wrong' way round. 4yo DS is left handed and does it the traditional way round.

[SurprisinglyCurvaceousPirate]

Ceevee, nope, lots of lefties use them in the 'right' hands because that is the way their parents probably laid their cutlery when they were small. My boys both use their cutlery in the 'right' hands already even though they are two young for us to know which hands they will write with.

[Pascha]

DH does this and nobody has ever noticed. My sister also does and I never noticed til DH pointed it out when he sat next to her at Christmas lunch a couple of years ago. I went 32 years without ever spotting it.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

I find it interesting how people use different hands for different things - husband is a lefty too, but does some things right handed like playing the guitar, he said he couldn't be bothered to swap the strings over.

Also found out the other day that my dad (right hander) plays left-handed golf. Why?

[BlingBubbles]

I am right handed but hold my knife in my left hand and fork in the right, in fact my whole family does including some of my cousins. My dad always says we eat the "right" way as we put our food in our mouth with our right hand. honestly I don't think it makes a bit of difference, whatever is the easiest I guess.

[SkinnyVanillaLatte]

Isn't it just a hang over from the days where people tried to teach left handed people not to be left handed?
If it's more natural to use cutlery one way than the other then the natural way is the right way imo.

[MyDogShitsMoney]

Let him do it whichever way feels most comfortable for him.

The idea that it's the wrong way harks back to the days where being left handed was wrong and children had their hand tied behind their backs.

It's far more important that he is learning to use cutlery properly and learning good table manners.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Thanks - I'll stop reminding him to swap them over and let him get on with it.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

MyDog we're working on the table manners. Yoghurt is not normally a finger food, is it?

[SurprisinglyCurvaceousPirate]

The only time he could get confused is when he has dinner at a posh restaurant where they lay out all the cutlery right handed, but then I always have to move my spoons to my left hand so it's no big deal !

[MyDogShitsMoney]

X-post Skinny

[NicholasTeakozy]

Whenever this topic comes up I'm reminded of a Ted Chippington joke: ' I was washing up the other day and the wife said "those gloves are on the wrong hands". I said "yes, they should be on yours"'

Sorry for the sexist joke, I'm not proud of myself.

[MyDogShitsMoney]

Absolutely Endo, as is pasta in tomato sauce!

[FredFredGeorge]

Of course you should let him get on with it! DP is left handed but uses the cutlery the "right way" as you would have it, but only because she's moved to a country where we do it that way, she does things backwards in her own country.

Not teaching him to use cutlery is a pretty bad idea as it's considered pretty rude to use your hands for lots of meals in our culture, but which hand makes no difference, just a convention.

[GrimmaTheNome]

Its not as though the cutlery itself is 'handed', like scissors.

Do teach him to lay a table the conventional way round - my leftie DH can't be relied on to do this. He eats the normal way round but seems to get confused if he has to think about it.

[QuietNinjaObsessing]

I'm right handed and hold my knife and fork the 'wrong way' round. The only issue I've ever had is when I lay the table and it normall takes me a while to get it right. Though this may be more of my own stupidity than any knife and fork related issues.

[AmberLeaf]

Lots of lefthanded people use their fork in their right hand. Its because its easier and more comfortable for them.

Don't know why anyone would try to change that tbh!