Calling all left handers

[TheStakeIsNotThePower]

My boys are both lefties, age 12 and 7. One manages right handed stuff pretty well (was very late settling on a hand, is not true ambidextrous but close) but the other doesn't. Realised today I probably need to graduate from the left handed kids safety scissors!

What things really make a difference?

Scissors is the obvious one but what other things do I just take for granted as a right handed person?

Old fashioned now, but I found chequebooks very annoying.

Always need pens that won't smudge (poor old 10 year old me and her glittery gel pens that never quite worked)

Writing with a fountain pen takes more practise (a bit niche I suppose)

Bread knives

Musical instruments. I play piano which is more difficult as a beginner as the right hand is often more complex. But this equalises as you progress and so it's worth persevering if they're keen. I always found guitar to make no sense as it seems set up for lefties - chords with left (dexterity) but strumming with the right. So it's one of the ones I'd encourage to learn as a righty.

Think about careers. There are some things you just have to do with the right hand. DH and I are both lefties, he's a surgeon but the entire theatre is set up for right handers and they won't flip it just for him, so he has to e.g. suture right handed. He gets excited when he gets to do something small totally solo and so can "go rogue" and operate left handed

I’m very left handed. I need left handed knives and scissors.

I also didn’t realise spatulas and some wooden spoons were handed until my aunt bought me these. They make turning things easier, though I don’t need them like I do the others.

I still don’t understand the bread knife thing, are they not symmetrical??

Starting listing in my head things I do left/right handed,
Left handed
Write
Use a spoon
Slice bread
Butter bread
Chop vegetables
Sew

Right handed
Play sport
Peel vegetables
Knit
Iron
Drink

My mum struggled to teach me to knit and sew because she was right handed. I do knit and sew a lot now.

The best thing ever is my Apple Watch because you can align the buttons on either side, so I can use them easily with my left hand when the watch is on my right wrist.

I can’t get on with left handed scissors, but eat and iron right handed.

Oh my word, I've been out at beavers and cubs. Lots to look through.

I never thought about a bread knife. Biggest child can't slice bread to save his life. My dad, also a leftie, is shit at it too.

Ruler is a very good point. However he may need to stop breaking and losing his stuff every 5 seconds.

If you take the view that one side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body, it’s only us lefties that are truly in our right minds!
I went to a Church Primary for a couple of years when I first started school and they tried to make me write with my right hand as it was “against the wishes of the Lord” to be left handed. As a result I write equally badly with either hand. In later life left handed scissors, secateurs and bread knife have been a blessing. For Golf & Cricket I play right handed. I also play violin & guitar right handed, but my left hand strength and dexterity are a positive bonus.

2/3 lefties in this house insist that they need nothing special. They use RH scissors with left hand & think it's ridiculous hype to say lefties need anything special.

1/3 lefties quite likes the LH scissors. I have learnt to use them, too (am a RHdr).

We don't have anything else special for them.

Nothing- unfortunately we live in a right handed world and need to get used to it. Things I’ve struggled with are tools like saws etc and throwing the javelin at PE

I'm left handed as are 2 of my kids. I have to say none of us has ever had a problem with any of the above. The only thing I've found difficult was writing with a cartridge pen as your hand drags over the writing and smudges the ink.

@FeltCarrot

That's a great list, and I do the same.

Isn't it interesting.

I think, statistically speaking, one third of the population are left handed, if 33% of us were blind - adaptions would be very quick in coming!

I'm a leftie and to be honest have always accepted that I live in a right handed world so accept right handed stuff as the downside of my superior intelligence and creativity. it's a fair swap.

Eat, knit etc right handed, use RH scissors, tin openers etc . The only thing I do find slightly awkward is unscrewing things like jars which seem to be easier for righties, and using a manual screwdriver . Electric screwdrivers, power tools and a grippy jar unscrewing gadget are about the only concessions I make.

[When I was younger my handwriting was awful because I didn't have a left handed fountain pen, but improvement in writing implements! particularly roller ball pens sorted that issue out]

At school, we couldnt use fountain or cartridge pens until we were in the 5th form, so were issued with dip pens(left handed nibs,natch) and the ink well was on the righthand side of the desk.
I was in demand when we played doubles in tennis,tho.
Is anyone else leftfooted? I'm off balance if I try to start a rise of stairs with my right foot, same with using an escalator.

I use those right handed veg peelers in my left hand. You just turn it round and peel the veg away from your body.

I read somewhere that identical twins are often one lefty, one righty, and I wonder if some of us are the remainder of a twin pregnancy where one twin became non viable very soon after the fertilised egg split.

Corkscrews and veg peelers are the only really difficult thing I need to use my own. Was at my friends and she was peeling carrots for a party, she asked me to take over so she could do something else. I felt I right idiot saying that I couldn’t use her veg peeler.

I do move things my way. So it’s probably difficult for my family of right handers.

Tin opener, scissors and knives/forks... Those were the 3 things a left handed teacher told my mum when she asked the same thing for me.
So I now find veg peelers and cutting bread awkward but that's it...

I have four left handed children and tin openers & scissors are the main issues we have discovered. I taught the first to tie laces and they have taught all the others. Being a right handed person in a houseful of lefties is a small insight into what general life must be like for them. I hate accidentally grabbing a pair of left handed scissors, they hurt my fingers SO much. Never had an issue with rulers, pencil sharpeners or fountain pens as they all rotate the page 90 degrees. There’s been some suggestion my stutter is as a result of being naturally left and made to use my right hand, but I guess I’ll never know.

Oh yes, tin openers. Forgot that.

Also cheese graters. Anything with a handle really.

Teaching them to knit will be a challenge

I've mostly just got on with struggling through, in a right handed world. They need to learn to use most things, as chances are there won't be e.g. left handed scissors just when they need them.

The only thing that i never mastered in a right handed way was playing cards. If you have a deck with the numbers only in the 2 diagonal corners, when you fan out your hand, all the corners are blank and when i try to fan them the opposite way, i drop them. I always buy cards with the numbers in all 4 corners.

I now realise though, why i always have to bugger about with a ruler and why slicing bread is tricky.

I think you just need to be observant of how your ds manages or doesn't manage the different things he does. If he can cut with your scissors and doesn't get a sore hand then that's good but if he can't cut very well and/or gets a sore hand it might be the scissors rather than his ability. In those circumstances it might be worth trying different scissors before worrying about his co-ordination/eyesight etc.

I didn't know about left handed rulers until after finishing school and would have loved one, especially while doing maths, would have made measuring and drawing certain length lines etc easier.

I have always felt odd when sharpening pencils so a sharpener with the blade on the other side would have been useful.

I have always had left handed or ambidextrous scissors (mum and bro are lefties too). Currently have two bread knives, one right handed but the other is sharp on both sides of the blade so I use that one.

You can get left handed watches where any buttons are on the other side of the watch so they don't dig into the back of your hand when you bend your hand up.

If ds is going for guitar lessons it would be worth borrowing/hiring guitars before buying to see which he finds most natural. Just recently at church a member of the band who is left handed but can play both ways said his next guitar was going to be a right handed one as the left handed ones are noticeably more expensive. If you can avoid buying left handed guitars then it will save money, not just for you now but for your ds when he buys his own as he might resent having to spent extra when he's older if it was possible for him to learn right handed. This might apply to other instruments too. Also, music teachers can be more expensive for a leftie. Drums need set up as a mirror image etc.

I think for sport and music playing/learning it all depends on how left handed you are for what adaptations need to be made. I write with my left but have better hand eye coordination for sports with my right hand, when I worked this out I improved with my rounders/tennis/badminton etc. But still played hockey, netball etc left handed.

A 'see how he does and adapt things when he struggles' attitude is useful. Just be aware that someone not being able to do everyday things might not be because they can't do things, it might be that they would find it easier with a more suitable tool, doesn't just work for handedness, useful for different disabilities and just in general.

I’m very left handed, I do everything with my left hand apart from use scissors with my right. But that’s a result of not having enough left handed scissors available in school.

The only bonus to being a leftie is that I found it very easy to learn to drive, the gearstick is on the left and we drive on the left side of the road.

Top annoyances:

• Irons, the ironing board needs to be the ‘opposite’ way around and the iron holder is always on the right.
• Tin Openers. I cannot use one to save my life. I have to buy ring pull tins.
• The majority of road crossings and ticket barriers are set up for right handers. Even the card slot on the ATM. Constant arm crossing!
• If you live with a right hander, every mug faces the ‘wrong’ way. Ditto the gravy jug. The numbers are on the wrong side so you have to guess or risk pouring gravy on your lap.
• Toilet roll in public loos, ALWAYS on the left. So if it’s a small toilet you have to bend your arm backwards to reach it.

There’s loads more! But you get used to it In school, I’d suggest left handed scissors and ruler. In adulthood, a left handed cheque book and tin opener. Also no ringbinders or anything other than a biro!

When I was a kid I'd sit on the left-most of a desk at school as writing was difficult and I'd end up inadvertently nudging the person next to me otherwise. Oh and veg peelers are the enemy!