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?

Maybe there are degrees of left handedness as I do find some things more difficult. I absolutely can't butter bread with my right hand....... right down to struggling to write in "bound" books where my wrist collides with the spine, holding a right handed pen, some locks can be difficult for me, the cameras on both my tablet and smartphone cameras are the wrong way round for me, I had to have my violin restrung. My carving knives have right handed blades. I also tick backwards, which makes perfect sense to me as it is the same "centre, away from the body" action. Maybe it is just me and, no, it isn't a huge problem, but, yes, I am aware of it on an almost daily basis.

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

Ditto the other way . Also helps to avoid RSI - and stops people using your machine, if that's an issue ...

How old is your DS? Until about 1my DS always used his left hand to eat etc. I thought he was a leftie, but is now at 2.5 right handed when he scribbles draws etc

My son is 8 and left handed, he has struggled with writing , wipe boards are a nightmare at school, he can read anything you put in front of him but finds writing difficult. I had to explain to a teacher that he needed to sit a table so that his left arm was not hitting a right handed child. My son does not form letters the same way as right handed children, so basically has had to teach himself to write because all of his teachers are right handed. It is an issue for him.

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

If lefties who drive open their door with their left hand, they're safer for cyclists. Getting right handed drivers to adopt the 'Dutch reach' may be harder to do in the U.K. than safety campaigners hope.

My son is left handed and has just started school. No issues really other than when he's learning his letters and his handwriting the teachers insist on putting the letter he has to copy on the left hand side of the page. This means he can't see it to copy. I have asked them to stick it on the right hand side of the page and sometimes they remember. It just means that I write the letter out for him so he has something to copy. He can't use right handed scissors though- really struggles with these so I'd recommend getti g a left handed pair. There's a great website called Everything Left Handed which has some great tips.

I am left handed and have never struggled with anything.

I must be a little bit on the ambidextrous side perhaps as had no issue learning to use a computer mouse in my right hand, and operate the buttons on the supermarket checkout (when I worked there) with my right hand.

Don't worry about it - just let him work it out himself.

I have to say it was one of the things that put me off training in surgery.

I was going to say surgery too. I know several left-handed surgeons who are really good at what they do, but if you are right-handed and operating with a left-handed surgeon then it complicates things, you end up sort of bashing instruments

Nothing you can’t learn to work around though!

I'm a leftie and have found it a non issue my whole life. DH would say the same.

I'm a lefty though a bit ambidextrous , never noticed ticket gates, chip and pin or cash machines. I never though about taking notes and scrolling being an advantage. I eat right handed my and am a lethal bowler

I manage okay but I think I'm not that strongly left handed. I can just about write right handed - is this something other people can do with their wrong hand? See photo - no idea if this is normal or not!

I sew left handed and cut left handed but use right handed scissors. No issues with knives and I've got the hang of potato peelers now.

Hockey I just learnt right-handed, same with using a computer mouse.

Ticket barriers annoy me but I've just learnt to plans and put my ticket in my right hand pocket.

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.

That does rather depend on whether you had the right teacher or not. Some teachers I came across growing up didn't have a clue how to help young left handers, and there were one or two others who simply wouldn't let us slant the paper. Slanting/angling the paper isn't something you're necessarily going to think about as a young child if not given good guidance.

No way I could use a right handed mouse - I have to reset mine and then place it on the left side of the computer. Seems there really are degrees of left handedness on this thread.

....... but I do have very nice handwriting, though I get a bit pissed off when people comment on how nicely I write, for a left hander!

Have been reading this with interest. DS3 is almost certainly a leftie for pen(cil) work, but weirdly he is very right footed and throws with his right hand.

My daughter and I are both left handed. It hasn't caused either of us any problems.

I'm left handed and haven't struggled much at all with it. I write from below, rather than in the curved hand style of a lot of lefties so I've never smudged writing. I played the piano and brass instruments as a child so learned to use both sets of fingers, then learned to type as a young adult, which perhaps reinforced the independence of my hands? I've also ridden to a fairly high standard all my life and both hands need to be used seperately too. (Incidentally horses definitely favour one side over the other, usually left).

I use a keypad or mouse with either hand. I don't have any left handed utensils (mum bought me a left handed tin opener when I was a child, but nowadays I peel with a knife). The only thing I really notice is the elbowing thing when eating, and I still have to think twice where to lay things on a table, despite doing it for a living for decades!

Ps, I've never felt any stigma nowadays, although understand there was in the past. Even the Middle East stigma comes from a hygiene reason, doesn't it? They think most people wipe their bums with a certain hand, so want service with the other (so my middle eastern colleagues said).

I am left handed and although I wouldn't say it is a problem as such there are many little niggles. Many have already been mentioned (writing in ring binders and cheque books etc) and I found that lack of writing support from teachers at primary school has hindered me significantly even 25 years on. Other things that haven't been mentioned are cake/tart slices that have the serrations on the wrong side so I just can't use them at all and a tendency to "dance" with strangers when you walk towards them and then both step to avoid each other but end up going the same way and then both go the other way! The same happens when people go in for a cheek kiss. They go right and I go left and you end up nearly kissing on the lips!

Some of these puzzle me. I’m a leftie and have no probs washing up, swiping my ticket at barriers and I slice bread beautifully thin.

It was a pain at school as I used to bang elbows with my desk mate and my work used to get smudged when I used a fountain pen and cheque books were a pain but that’s all in the past now.

I'm a leftie, as is my D M. She taught me all the tips and tricks for growing up in a rightie world, although she tells me I'm not a proper leftie as i use scissors with my right hand.
My DDad used to get very frustrated teaching me how to tie knots, but I found eventually if I mirrored him rather than copying i could work it out.
Ticket barriers annoy me. Serrated knives are serrated in such a way as to be designed for righties so I struggle to cut bread. can't use tin openers that go on the edge of a tin, have to get one's that go on the top. Jugs often have the markings on the wrong side, I just put them down to fill. For writing, slang the paper so as not to smudge.
Lefties become very good at adapting, we have to. All the best people are left handed

I wonder if other animals show signs of handedness ?

Primates do and they also know that the proportion of left handed people is roughly the same now since early man because they've looked at flint heads and can tell if they were made by a left handed or right handed person.

I'm left-handed and so is my brother, both parents right-handed. Grandfather was 'ambidextrous' but was actually a leftie who was forced to use his right hand.

I am very left-handed and was always surprised how well my brother adapted to the right-handed world. He will happily use right-handed scissors in his right hand. I had left-handed ones from an early age. I am older so he could have used them but chose not to.

The only thing I do right-handed is hold my knife and fork 'correctly', while my brother eats left-handed. The disadvantage of this for me is that I cannot manage to carve a joint of meat nicely - because I don't have the dexterity in my right hand but it feels wrong to hold the carving knife and fork the other way round.

Took me years to learn to tie shoe laces.

All my kitchen knives are double sided.

Mouse is on left hand side of computer. I turn the page almost at right angle for writing and am always on the lookout for non-spiral-bound notebooks.

I always thought we read magazines backwards because we flick backwards using our left hands instead of forwards using our right.

I'd forgotten about the chairs in lecture halls - used to drive me crazy when I was a student!

I didn't even realise about door handles! There is actually one left-handed one in our house because of the way the door opens.

I am musical and play woodwind the normal way round (no choice really because of the way the keys are positioned, though the recorder could technically be played either way). Lots of right-handed children actually have trouble starting wind instruments because the left hand goes at the top. I play guitar left-handed (strung 'upside down') and learned mirror image. I don't think I could play an orchestral stringed instrument as it would just feel too backwards.

I loathe automatic gates - lived in London when they first came in and I didn't realise for ages why I found them such a pain! I cannot do it right-handed so always had to hold the ticket across my body to get through - lots of clumsy juggling which is tricky when the tube is busy.

Banisters are almost always on the right! Kitchen sinks can be either way round depending on your kitchen layout but I agree one that has the drainer on the wrong side is a pain.

Twotabbycats - are you me? Right down to the natural leftie grandparent so much of what you say rings true for me. Our meeting room actually has some left handed chairs which makes life easier and my colleagues were all incredulous when they arrived as they had never given any thought to the fact that all these chairs were previously right handed! When I ask them to use their mobile phones with their left hand they are surprised at just how right handed they are too!
I still use the cross body technique for ticket barriers as I am likely to drop my ticket if I try and do it right handed.
Through this thread I have realised how many people can do things with their right hand - scissors, knives, etc but it seems that some of us just can't!