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?

I'm left handed (and would love my Ds2 to be, but it's too early to tell yet). I do remember clattering elbows at school but swapping seats resolved that. And you can be left handed but right dominant - I write with my left hand but do everything else wjth my right (scissors, tennis, throwing a ball etc). Frankly if anyone told me there was stigma to being left handed I'll tell them to do one. And I do think there's something in the artistic rumour, I once worked at an architects and 60% of them were lefties, when only 10% of the population is.

I love being left handed now, but hated it as a child, although my school weren’t bothered which hand you used. Definitely much easier now we don’t have to write much. I found that my handwritten essays were shorter than those of my peers but I did spend the time thinking more about what to write. I tend to be quite concise now as a result.

I've never heard of left handed having a stigma to it

Then you need to learn more about it. It used to be believed that left-handedness was a sign of evil. The word sinister comes from the Latin for left. It's not so long ago that children were literally not allowed to write with their left hands at school. There are posters on this very thread who experienced this.

Thankfully society in the UK at least has largely moved on and I am very pleased you have never been stigmatised for your dominant hand!

I ended up buying an electric tin opener as I ‘killed’ so many.

And something I learned at as a teenager. Left handed playing cards are a real thing. They have a number in every corner so you can fan them either way.

Oh, and cake forks! And I struggle to lay a pretty table. It isn't naturally obvious where glasses and side plates go!

Oooh speaking of left handers being more artistic - lately I've noticed a disproportionate number of actors on tv/film that when writing are left handed!

I'm left handed.
This essentially means I've learned to be relatively ambidextrous to cope. I prefer using right handed scissors, but my left hand is definitely the dominant one! My mum said I was clearly left handed from the moment I could reach for toys.
My eldest is very left handed. Much like me, even from quite young you could see the left bias. Things are easier for him, but I did have to do his terrible handwriting with his teacher - he can't see what he's writing as he does it, so it's going to be harder.
I have to say, being relatively ambidextrous I find it easier to put on makeup than my right handed friends!

My 7 year old is left handed and really struggles with writing. He is very bright (his intelligence was tested as part of a research programme when he was younger) but he can't write fast or nearly enough at school.

Neatly enough not nearly enough.

DD1 is left handed and the only problems she's had so far are at school. They've specified particular handwriting pens which are smudgy and they constantly sit her on the right side of right handers. Otherwise all fine.

All the best people are left handed

The only problems I can think of are cake forks and when someone asks you to sign for a parcel they always pass the pen towards your right hand.

My left handed reception teacher taught me to knit, but I can still only knit scarves! And I remember struggling to learn to cut using my right hand but I'm glad I did because almost all scissors are right handed in the real world (ie outside of a primary school classroom). My handwriting is fairly neat and legible and I hold my hand slightly under the line of writing, so no smudging.

I'm just gutted that neither of my dc are left handed. I told DH that we needed to have a third to try for a leftie but he wasn't convinced.

You learn to adapt. There are frustrations like some cutlery only working if you hold it in your right hand, mugs with designs inside you can only see if you hold it in your right hand, etc. By the time there was more awareness of making provision for left handers in the 80s I'd already learned to use right handed scissors, etc and couldn't master left handed ones. I suffered at lunchtimes at primary school because an elderly dinner lady made me seal my knife and fork round so I was eating with my knife in my right hand, fork in my left and it took me ages to eat and no one picked up on why. I was however, quite sought after for rounders as I hit the ball where there were never many fielders.

My left handed DD yr5 encountered a new obstacle today. When I was enjoying hockey at school it never occurred to me that the stick is yet another thing designed for right handers!

@Talkinpeece I genuinely don’t know what you mean

I suspect though I’d probably be shit at it regardless of the knife

Whats the problem with cake forks? what actually is a cake fork?

Gilead
If you have a symmetrical bread knife (SAinsburys and John Lewis sell them) your bread slicing is the same as anybody right handed or ambidextrous

icebear
cake forks have a sharp edge on one side to cut up the slice of cake before spiking it

I'm a leftie, not many issues I can think of, but I started school in the 80s and had to adjust to using things like scissors, cutlery for right-handers. Writing in notepads and things is a bit of a pain but I don't even think about it now.

@Bluetrews25 YES!!

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.

I'm a leftie and completely fine with anything apart from those fucking chairs with folding tables. There's nothing you can do about it.

A pox on the inventor.

I grew up in the age of fountain pens and never had a problem with smudging and didn't curl my arm round or any other strange things. And I have rather lovely handwriting as it happens!

My school had left handed hockey sticks so that was never an issue. These days there are lots of things which are minor annoyances as they are thoughtlessly designed.

I had forgotten about the hockey sticks! And I hadn’t realised about the ability to scroll the mouse and write - do this often but hadn’t given it a thought.

I have to say it was one of the things that put me off training in surgery. I found trying to learn to knit impossible so figured it probably wasn’t for me and went for a medical specialty instead. There are successful left handed surgeons though. And actually work with more left handed doctors than you’d expect in the general population. I wouldn’t say doctors are necessarily a creative breed though. I’m not anyway!

I'd forgotten about hockey sticks too - I (or rather my mum) had to buy a lefthanded one.

At least with a computer mouse you can go into settings and switch the buttons over.

I love being left handed.
I'd highly recommend left handed scissors - they were a revelation at the ripe old age of 33!
There's a left handed shop in London where you can bankrupt yourself with 'left handed tat'.
I also didn't know that bread knives were right handed. I thought I was just rubbish at cutting bread. Maybe it's the knife, maybe I'm just crap at it!