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?

Fish knives are a no no. They are designed for right handed use, and I use a knife in the left hand

I love being left handed!!
Never had a problem as far as I can remember. Cenrtainly not an issue now an adult.

It has always been a non issue to me and I'm now 49.
However I do think some people are more left handed than others.
I genuinely have never struggled with scissors or anything else and I learn some new issue (transport card readers on the right eg) every time I read a thread like this.

I’m a leftie it was annoying at school when doing certain sports etc having to go to the other side of the field and do things alone (throwing the javelin 🤣) also learning to knit etc was all done right handed.

Diy can be a pain as most tools are right handed for example some blades are for a right handed person etc so always need to be a bit careful

It's definitely a spectrum- I am massively right-handed (would reach across my body to pick something up with my right hand rather than use my left). DM is marginally right handed but can pick up left handed if needed (eg when she had tennis elbow she just played left handed). DS is not exactly ambidextrous but writes right handed and bats right handed in cricket and is a good hockey player, but bowls left armed, plays tennis left handed and is very left footed. DD is super left handed- needs left handed scissors etc.

re hockey sticks (for field hockey rather than ice hockey), left handed sticks don't exist anymore, or at least you cant use them in matches as you'd automatically foul every time you tackled. DD just has to play right handed

I was ambidextrous as a child and made to "choose " by my school. Except the only correct choice was to be right handed.

2 of my dc are left handed. One is still a very messy writer age 12 and struggled a lot with letter formation etc as it was taught in a right handed way. Silly things like drawing triangles was an issue because his hand covered the bit he needed to join to. I tried to help him do them the other way but he refused because he thought he had to do them the school way. He uses right handed scissors fine and cutlery etc fine.

The 6 year old struggles less with writing and drawing, I suspect partially because last school year and this year he has a left handed teacher. However he can't use right handed scissors and insists on holding his knife in his left hand and fork in his right. Not that I'm bothered.

Someone might have mentioned it but writing in a notepad with the spiral on the left,
I usually turn it upside down the spiral is on the right or buy a book that’s bound at the top.

The biggest annoyance is definitely smudging my words as I’m writing, can only use biros (and even they smudge sometimes) it’s very frustrating when writing something like a birthday card

I like being left handed. I’m quite an average person in most ways and it makes me a little bit special . I’m very left-dominant though and it does make lots of things a bit awkward. I think it’s just less intuitive how you’re supposed to hold and operate things. I’ve still got a terrible pen grip (basically hold it in my fist with the nib protruding between my middle and ring fingers), but I was once told by a complete stranger in a cafe that I had the neatest left-handed writing he’d ever seen!

There are many words foe ‘left’ which are also a bit derogatory, like ‘gauche’ which is obviously French for ‘left’ but has come to mean socially inept. Cack handed is another.

There is no excuse for any teacher to object to placing left and right handers so they don’t clash arms. When I did my SPLD training it was mandatory to remind teachers about it.

As a left handed, I never accepted the excuse of ‘My writing is untidy because I’m left handed’. I used a fountain pen at school too. You just need to angle the paper correctly and you don’t need to ‘hook’ your hand either.

I don't understand the posted who commented about door handles being the wrong side? In both my house and office i have doors that are a mix of handles on the left and the right?

Left handed playing cards are a real thing. They have a number in every corner so you can fan them either way.

Or just Waddingtons standard ... it took me years to work out why I was so dreadful at cards around friends houses. (I'm not LH as such, but for some reason do some things naturally left handed).

It's not just bread knives - steak knives are subtly handed. Also flip cases for phones. But at least you can configure the buttons to swap.

Also C&P terminals in shops tend to be angled for Righties.

Myself and DB are left handed. Never caused an issue, you have to adapt in some ways I suppose but nothing difficult comes to mind so I guess we deal with it automatically.

I didn't think people cared much about left handedness nowadays especially as the superstition days are long gone

I didn't think people cared much about left handedness nowadays especially as the superstition days are long gone
In the West maybe.
Not in many, many countries

I never even thought about cheque books being designed for right handed people. I just thought they were a bad design. My knitting is very slow. I am clumsy opening the wrong door with double doors.

The bottom line is the world has - for whatever reason - been designed around right handed people, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

I wonder if other animals show signs of handedness ?

Also, now possible with the flick of a switch, how come we don't hear about left-handed piano players . Is it an inherently ambidextrous instrument ? (Which seems unlikely as I know there's such a thing as a left handed drum kit ...)

For various reasons I mouse left handed (with swapped buttons) which has caused a little excitement when I've had an interview with a technical test ...

I wonder if other animals show signs of handedness ?
Yes
Dogs, cats, monkeys, lions etc etc

eg
one of my cats ALWAYS does the hook swipe with her right paw

there is film of chimps copying another one that was right handed and then clearly changing to their dominant left hand

(files under "fact for today" )

Talkinpiece I'm not British so I know.

I'd assumed this OP was about the West. Superstition was a thing here too many years ago and that's died down in UK now

how come we don't hear about left-handed piano players . Is it an inherently ambidextrous instrument ? (Which seems unlikely as I know there's such a thing as a left handed drum kit ...)

left handed piano :
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/lefthand-piano-christopher-seed/

But maybe left-handed is an advantage :
https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/calendar/for-many-pianists-being-left-handed-just-right/9Jtt37m4CnhJPYI3wKtfUK/

What I was looking for when I found those was this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PianoConcertoofortheeLeftHandd_(Ravel)

My DS is a leftie and it really hasn’t affected him. He did struggle to write more than my DD’s but they added a grip to his pencil and et voila, his writing is better than mine now .

Honestly I teach at FE level and almost nothing is hand written anymore. I think handwriting will become obsolete in our lifetime.

Stringed instuments will probably be your only real issue. I love being left handed but gave up trying to learn guitar and stuck to woodwind.

Most of the problems have disappeared in modern life - for example the pen on the bank on a chain was on the right so awkward, some couriers still have that set up, but most now are on a coil from the centre.
Cheque books the same, stubs on the left, who uses cheques these days?
Spiral bound notebooks, more of a common day issue, resolved by using top bound pads , not pads bound on the left.
Watch winders, set to be used wearing the watch in the left and being altered by the right.
Handbags, zip set to be easier to open worn in the right hand set up.
As a kid, using scissors, the cutting blade is on the other side from where you are taught to line the blades up, so will always be of line till you learn to compensate.
Do not use fountain pens, the hand coming across the writing will always smudge it

A Benefit if you learn to control a computer mouse in the usual right handed setup it is so much easier to take hand written notes

I love being left handed but gave up trying to learn guitar and stuck to woodwind.

Aren't those instruments handed ? Certainly clarinets and saxophones ?

Then again there all the things we just adapt too, door handles, ticket machines, cash points etc all on the right so we either cross our body to use them or use more thought to coordinate our right hand to manage them