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?

Dd is left handed and so far hasn't come across any issues except smudging her writing. She's 8. Her piano teacher takes into account her left handedness and she uses left handed scissors at school.

I'm right handed but with a good sprinkling of lefties in the family.

When your ds is old enough to open screw top jars, or use a corkscrew, hold the lid/corkscrew still and turn the jar / bottle.

I can use my left for some things and as I walk with a stick in my right hand now it's a good job. Eg I would have no problem using my phone left handed, I often do. I can write with my left hand and I can crochet left handed, I taught myself so I could teach a cousin (who is left handed) I brush the right side of my mouth with my left hand and move the brush between hands when I brush my hair.

I think there are degrees of 'handedness', I have cousins on both my mum's and dad's side who are left handed so I think I must have got a bit of left gene, I'm also dyslexic.

My dad's left handed, a couple of weeks ago he apologised for eating ice cream left handed, I hadn't even noticed and certainly don't care.

The only two people I know who can't use a knife and fork in the 'right' hands are both right handed. I find this bizarre, a close friend claims he cannot eat with the knife in his right hand, but (yes I pointed this out to him) if he is cutting a slice of bread he has the knife in his right hand.

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.

Lots of them you can now swap the table side

www.churchbuyinggroup.co.uk/advanced-lecture-chair?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7v6J6cH23gIVxprVCh2HdAUcEAkYASABEgIICvD_BwE

Another thread has prompted me to post here again: insulated mugs with handles are a pain if you are left handed and hold your mug in your left hand: I have never found one where you can screw on the lid and drink from the correct side of the lid whilst holding it in your left hand. I had to buy one with a push on lid. Don't trust myself with a handleless one.

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.

Which leads to the question as to what is "handedness" and does it play any role in evolution ?

Did anyone catch "The Grand Tour" with Clarkson firing a machine gun ? He noted that it was bad luck if you were a leftie, as it spat the bullet casings out of one side only which hit you in the face firing left handed. Turns out while not left handed (like me) he does somethings left handed, including shooting. (I hold a bow and arrow left handed).

In the case above, being left-handed would seem to be a clear disadvantage ...

For some reason I'm now thinking about people whose insides are the wrong way round ... 1 in 10,000 or something ?

The reason it's perceived as a disadvantage is because Judeo-Christian religions attributed feminity and inferiority to the left. Christianity also associated the left with evil. Muslims use the left hand for unclean purposes. It's deep-rooted stuff.

Consequently all sorts of items were manufactured for right handed use instead of making them capable of use in either hand because, at least from Victorian times, left-handedness was suppressed. Also cheaper I would guess. So yes, obviously a disadvantage if you can't safely operate a machine gun using your left hand.

I think I have read somewhere that there isn't a 50:50 split between naturally right handed and naturally left handed people so some of the views of left handedness are probably because a minority was different.

Well from "QI" I learned that 1600-1800, boots weren't handed ....

Are you being facetious? Surely that means they just weren't shaped for each foot?

My DS is left handed, main 'issues'
shoelaces (he's 19 now and I'm still tempted to do for him as it looks so bloody awkward and takes him ages!)
Scissors - now has left handed pair which he finds are a revelation!
Chopping meat / veg - just always looks as though he's about to chop his own hand off!
Smudgy ink - when little tried LH pens and pencil grips but still not easy and handwriting not the neatest!
Plays guitar and woodwind instruments - has LH guitar and plays woodwind the other way round (very strange to watch!)
Potato peelers
Using knife and fork - often gives up and uses fork only but then self conscious in some situations....
General awkwardness in tasks requiring manual dexterity - but he's so smart, lovely and engaging he just laughs it off and has never felt embarrassed or found social situations difficult.

Are you being facetious?

If I was, I'd like to think you'd know for sure ...

Surely that means they just weren't shaped for each foot?

Well yes, I was addressing the comment about things being shaped for handedness. Seems for 200 years, boots weren't. Presumably making them a lot easier to make and sell (and you could sell single boots, which was probably an economic driver for the situation).

I'm guessing come 1800 people were that much richer

I'd guess that shaping boots to feet made them more comfortable. Not really the same thing as shaping things for hands and grip though.

I learned to crochet following a Ladybird book tip to use a mirror. My granny taught me. I found that much easier than knitting. Levels of manual dexterity vary though - some people probably find a way of copying others that works for them.

Anyway, I read an article recently that said that being left handed is insignificant.

I'm left handed and it's a total non- issue for me.

However, I think the key is to not make a big deal of it and take the world as you find it - you don't have to define everything as left or right handed

If you look for it, you will find "problems" - with everything being right handed - everywhere! The world is undoubtedly right handed as the majority of people are. But it's not exactly a huge problem for left handers.

I have a family member that sees it as almost a disability and spends so much energy getting upset / angry about things that are right handed- and demands 'left handed versions' of things everywhere she goes...

Oh and unless absolutely necessary, I'd recommend learning sports etc right handed (normally) playing golf, tennis, learning the guitar is quite a learning curve anyway and you use both hands so why make it more complicated by needing special equipment. Or better still learn both ways (where appropriate).

I saw a left handed writer recently who turned the paper so far she was almost writing upside down.

My ds is left handed. Only issues he has are using scissors, even the left handed ones are awkward! Smudging his writing. He now has a bendy left hand pen, which prevents the hand drag and smudges!

I guess @CosySnuggles there really are degrees of left handedness then. I don't make a big deal of it and I don't go looking for problems but it is a daily reality in my life. Never wise to make assumptions about other people, eh?

This is interesting as my child has started reception and school say he writes with his right hand, but at home he uses his left and is generally left handed. He is also left footed. I am wondering if he is able to use both or are school teaching him to write with the wrong hand? It concerns me as his writing isn’t brilliant.

My boss bought special scissors for me for my work. No one else can use them as the blades and handles are opposite to RH ones.
Just brilliant 😁

Don't know if it's been said but Papermate do excellent fast drying pens that are good for left handers.

The scissors thing is weird. I have the same issue with left handed scissors as some left handers have with right handed scissors - it's like the cutting surfaces just move apart. I guess I learned how to hold the right hand ones funny so they worked. I think you're better off starting with left handed scissors because now I can't use left handed scissors but I also can't use moulded right handed ones, so it's a bit restrictive.

I think the stigma has died right out and most teachers are very on the ball about being tolerant - even in my day, I got a bit of a free pass on my handwriting because they recognised that it was harder for us.

My dd is a lefty.I got her lots of different pens and pencils withgrooves for her fingers so that she had a normal pen grip.She manage well and tilts the paper so no smudging orwrist fatigue.
She cuts with right handed scissors,she has left handed ones but is always loosing them.Life has been easier now she has craft knives.
Tin openers she still has issues with but otherwise fine.
She ties shoe laces with the two bow method so no issue there.

I'm right handed and can't possibly use a fork in my left hand, knife in the right. My ds is left handed but obviously copying me holds his knife and the fork the same as me.
He doesn't seem to have an issue but his hand writing is awful, possibly as his teachers have been right handed?
Who knows

OkPedro

Out of interest if you are cutting a cake, or a loaf of bread which hand do you use? Also if you are buttering bread?

sashh good point!
If I'm buttering bread/cutting cake I'll use my right hand but if I'm eating steak and chips I'll have the knife in my left hand, fork in my right hand

OkPedro

LOL so you can use a knife in your right hand.

OK further question, do you actually cut the steak? My right handed friend who does the same as you, sort of holds the meat (he doesn't like steak so it's usually sausages) with his knife and then uses the fork to sort of drag the meat appart.

Oh and I wasn't expecting a reply at this time in the morning.

Cut, butter and eat my bread all left handed.... and preferably with Marmite!

I'm a leftie but reasonably ambidextrous. My handwriting is better than most peoples left or right handed! We had a primary school teacher who was mad keen on good handwriting! We are a left handed household and so everything is unconsciously set to be easier for left handers, kettle easier to pick up left handed space for prep to the right so you have room to use the left hand. My left handed pastry fork is one of my prized possessions . Oh and for those with potato peeler issues I've had one of these for 20 years solves the issues.

www.amazon.co.uk/OXO-Good-Grips-Y-Peeler/dp/B00004OCIU

I'm left handed. I find certain things irritating. Sometimes there'll be gadgets or technology I can tell have never been tested with a left handed person. Buttons on certain sides of things, etc.

My biggest issues aside from that are smudging ink when I write and finding scissors that bloody cut!!!!