Is being left-handed a non-issue these days?

[Svanhildur]

Just wondering because DS looks like he's going to be left-handed. Thankfully we have moved past the days when this would be 'corrected' at all and I'm sure that in the grand scheme of things it is of very small significance. But I'm sure the world is designed for righties in a way that I don't always notice, being right-handed myself.

Those of you who are left-handed, does it cause any annoyances in your everyday lives or would you say that now the stigma is gone, that being left-handed is basically a non-issue?

And shit at musical instruments for the same reason. And I didn't learn how to tie my shoelaces to I was twenty because people always taught me using my right hand, gave up and I wore slip on shoes for years to I met a left handed friend who taught me.

One of mine is a leftie. It's all fun and games until you have to teach them how to tie laces.

We've also had to buy some specialist sporting equipment - eg left-handed golf clubs.

In the UK its a non issue
UNLESS
your family is of a faith that forces eating with the right hand
and writing with the right hand

And when you visit countries with such rules in their education system,
you may get stared at for using your left hand
and you will see people who failed education because they were forced to use their wrong hand

Have two dses that are left handed. One couldn't get to grips with holding a pencil properly at all more because we couldn't really show him properly but started using pencil grip things and it helped. He said he finds it hard not covering his work with his right hand. Loads of good advice above, Id say make sure you keep an eye on how he writes to get him used to the proper way early

I was taught to tie shoelaces by a rightie- they sat opposite me so using the "wrong" hand wasn't a problem ☺

My Ds is is left handed I find some things he struggles with some not.

He struggles to cut even with left handed scissors. I have to find out some things if he is left handed for like playing cricket , playing guitar.

My sister who is left handed has an enectric can opener and says she books are backwards

Things that are different/difficult

-right handed potato peeler and can opener
-opening ham/spam with those key things
-primary school having to write with fountain pen (do they still do this?) but now I have a left handed nib it's easier because the ink flows correctly but it took me years to not smudge
-notebooks as the binding are on the left
-secondary school my teachers seem to love seating plans and sitting on the right was a pain as we'd bump arms

When you show him how to do things often sitting opposite helps rather than next to.

I’m a leftie and come from a long line of lefties. My eldest is one too, and my youngest looks as though he will be.

I find more stuff hard than you’d think. I’ve developed a really weird pen grip to compensate for smudging - I get bad wrist cramps if I have to write too much (exams were agony). I can’t use right-handed OR left-handed scissors (probably because my pen grip is so bizarre. I can get by with ones that have two loops the same size but still find them painful.

Tin openers and peelers are difficult. Also cheque books and notebooks. And any other sort of book you write in.

On lots of hand-held electrical things (cake mixer and Dyson vacuum come immediately to mind) the wire comes out of the left-hand side and gets in the way. The switch to empty the dyson handheld is in the wrong place. I should probably stop buying dyson stuff.

At school, it was an issue in sports because in bat and/or ball games, everyone throws to your right. Contributed to how terrible I am at catching and hitting.

Keyboards are backwards. Desks are set up backwards. I could go on.

I've always been fascinated with lefties. I'm right handed but I'm a minority in my family.

I'm a leftie for writing, spoons, toothbrush, makeup application and chopsticks (only found that last one out a few years ago after repeatedly finding it impossible to use R hand, and switched to find it was a breeze)
So L hand for precision grip, R for power grip - scissors, screwdrivers, knives, sports. Those silly folding attached to the arm desktops in lecture theatres are a PITA and never use them, as the 'arm support' is just not there for a leftie.
Tilt top of paper far enough to the R and you will not smudge the ink, special nib not needed (I did have one when learning, but soon realised not needed.) I also recall some teacher pressure to use R hand.

It's a non-issue nowadays I think. Unless you're a violin player like my cousin. It's much easier as you press the strings with your left hand, and all the right hand has to do is push the bow up and down. Apologies to any other violin players, I'm sure there's more to it than that.

I am very left handed in that I do everything with my left and my right is practically useless.

It's never really been an issue for me. I use ordinary scissors, in my left hand.

Ds is a leftie. We bought him pens and all sorts of stationary when he was younger. As he got older we bought him items like can openers for left handers and othee things. He just uses reguar household items. The only time he needs anything different is a left handed ice hockey stick.
At home I can tell who we beung ironing because the lads never put the board away and DS2 has it the opposite way to everyone else.

I forget about him being left handed usually until I see these threads!!

I'm left handed. I do have a tendency to drag my hand through the ink when I'm writing, and I struggle with a lot of scissors, but on the whole it's no big deal.

Really, the only annoying thing is people who feel the need to remind me and then tell me I write 'funny'.

I even learnt to play a guitar strung for a rightie by holding it upside down.

Dh is left handed, hasn't done him any harm! Scissors is the main thing to buy for home, pens aren't as much of an issue as few use fountain pens these days. DH uses power tools, gold clubs, cricket bat and hockey stick right handed, we don't even have left handed scissors in the house

Actually, reading through the thread - yes, cheque books! I used to have a job that, amongst other things, involved writing cheques, I really, really struggled with that.

Dh plays guitar right handed too, he writes with left hand and has a special computer games left handed mouse!

Katamari hugs, has given me perspective on ds now, I think was something we didn't think about as much

Leftie and can't say anything is really an issue - we used fountain pens in school which I tended to smudge but I generally write with the paper sideways now so not an issue. Anything I guess I've just adapted as never noticed things like keyboards, atms, etc being wrong. I played instruments from a young age so maybe my brain just rewired to accommodate them a bit?

Apologies if it's already been said, but it's mostly a non-issue (in that thankfully no-one is going to force him to try to change hands), but there are many tiny irritations that even a lefty may not always realise is because they're operating in a right handed world.

My mum used to get cross with me for being so rubbish at peeling potatoes - it didn't occur to either of us that it was because I was using a fixed blade peeler that was designed to be used right handed.

I used to have to remember to bring something to lean on in busy lectures because the chairs with little desks attached were on the right hand side.

I had a permanent groove in my index finger from forcing together the blades of right handed scissors as a child. Thankfully scissors are now a lot better. I can't use left handed ones actually, I'm too used to forcing the blades together so with left handed ones I end up forcing them apart!

So, yes, no big deal, but keep it in the back of your mind and if he finds something tricker than you'd expect remember to check if it's a handed issue and cut him some slack.

As a lefty parent of two righty boys, I used to always use my right hand when showing them how to form letters - you might want to try the same (no-one did for me mind you, so it probably doesn't make that much difference).

I struggle with tin openers but very few tins don't have pull tabs these days and I have a lefthanded opener if needed. The only other issues I've had are smudging when writing as a child, having to turn the bread around to cut a slice and getting blisters if I have a lot of cutting to do when sewing as the sewing scissors are upside down so less ergonomic. I could get a left-handed scissors but don't sew enough tbh.

goo.gl/images/DCvoRj

I almost forgot these dreadful cups. They were all the rafe at meetings 10/15years ago. Used to give me the rage when I couldn't drink me coffee without using 2 hands

My daughter, brothers, husband, nephews, best friend, and sister in law are all left handed. Sometimes I feel like the minority!

Theres no stigma at all, and its still cool.

The only problem that i’ve seen, was when my daughter had to write with a fountain pen at school. Even with left handed nibs, she still ended up covered with ink. Shes 20 now so hopefully schools aren’t still forcing fountain pens on children (unless they want them - I personally love my Lamys).

My top tip is uni-ball Jetstream pens. The ink dries almost instantly. It will make life much easier.