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?

Can I just ask about the document thing. I get passed documents to sign at work with back up paperwork. The front sheet is landscape, the back up portrait. I always turn the back up paperwork so the top is on the right hand side (in landscape). Is that a leftie thing or do RH do it that way?

Computer keyboards!
The number-pad is on the RHS, though you can buy left-handed ones now that aren't as extortionately expensive as thy used to be. I overcame the problem by buying a separate number-pad to plug into a USB port.

Not left handed myself - but remember visiting the original Beak St "Anything Left Handed"shop to get scissors and tin openers for my sister (she was in the north of Scotland and I was down south). I see they have gone online now - might be a useful website (if you haven't seen it already).
www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/about/about-alh/shop-history.html

Any other lefties have trouble with tipex mice?. Other than fish knifes, bottle openers, veg peelers and corkscrews cause me difficulties. Cake forks are pointless for a leftie. Also mugs were you can only see design when held in left hand. Still have nightmares about using the big pencil sharpener at the front of the class in primary school, and trying to rotate sharpener around pencil.

I have a left handed cake fork! bought for me by my 2 DSs many years ago. Thank you whoever mentioned the left handed shop online, I have just ordered a can opener and a cake slice Hurray

I could never get to grips with left handed scissors.
What is wrong with pencil sharpeners and can openers?
I always thought playing the flute would be hard.
I eat "right handed" as i like my smart hand to do the guiding and my dumb hand to cut.
Mouse with my right hand

Honestly I think lots of lefties just adapt and that's part of why we're so awesome

If you’re buying birthday cards for them to write out, make sure they’re not shiny. Smudged birthday cards are the bane of my life!

Also spiral bound notebooks start to hurt after a while.

And cards
How are playing cards right handed??

@Smellbowpenisbeakeryoujust you just need to turn the whole thing so you're writing down the page instead of across

@Babdoc ...... badly !

@Mitzik - I agree. Can't see why it helps to turn a guitar round the other way. Personally I think, as the left hand is doing all the tricky bits of putting fingers in the correct places on all the strings, then left handers are at an advantage when it comes to playing a guitar.

I've thought of two more. Cake forks (though I suppose you could use an ordinary fork, they are tricky if you try one) and some kettles only have the 'window' (to show how much water there is in it) on the side that shows if you are picking it up in your right hand. Annoying rather than disabling though.

Birthday cards! You're so right. Any cards I write the lots of love.... bit first and then the top part happy birthday/ happy Father's Day etc otherwise it's smudge central

I'm strongly left handed, but have never used anything designed for left handed people. This does mean I'm pretty crap at opening tins and cutting wrapping paper. This thread has made me realise I've been living my entire life backwards

We're a majority lefted handed household. DD1 and I are very left handed and footed, DS is left handed but right footed. When I was a child my left handedness was very much seen as an annoyance by my mother (e.g. she insists my placesetting had to be set 'correctly', i.e. righthanded, so every meal there starts with me moving my cup and spoon before I can use it) so the most important thing is to not treat your DC as freaks. We have a mix of left and right handed scissors at home (it's not just the shaping of the handle, the blades are the opposite way round so you can easily see your cutting edge, I twist my hand when using RH scissors so I can see the cutting edge) and it was a rather sweet moment when my Mum struggled with a pair of LH scissors. I'm going to go and buy a LH bread knife now because I still struggle with those.

DD1 is a footballer and being left footed is a big advantage, growing up I loved all the LH tennis players so in sport it's a big advantage although I had to keep telling PE teachers I just needed to mirror them and they didn't need to tortuously try and do something left handed to demonstrate.

I think you get so used with things being RH that you forget the adaptions you have to make. But most architects are LH and I think there are more LH scientists than average based on my life experience. Apparently there are very few LH dentists and my hairdresser said he never managed to train a LH hairdresser, might just be him though!

I am left handed but I do everything except write with my right hand no idea why lol

Same here!

I’m a total leftie, and cannot even button a button with my right hand!

A fantastic website is anythinglefthanded.co.uk

I even have a left handed clock as I find it easier to read!

I even have a left handed clock as I find it easier to read

What the heck is a left handed clock?

I'm a right handed mum in a family of lefties, scissors can be used upside down for lefties. I'm left handed in some things, for instance pouring kettles and just find it awkward that they're always in corners so I find it hard to pick up without contorting my body. I also use a pickaxe left handed but that has never been a major problem.

I am completely left handed, my right hand is pretty much useless
I found that I need my own vegetable peeler even though they aren’t actually handed, but they do seem to adjust to the person using them over time.
Also, have you looked at the easy hold pens and pencils? The left handed ones are really comfortable to hold. I don’t know if they will need these or not but they might need a left handed fountain pen nib.

How are playing cards right handed??

If you play with Waddingtons which has the card number on all 4 corners, you won't notice.

Switch to any other design with 2 corners marked and fan. You'll see the problem immediately.

Can make playing in casinos difficult ... which raises an interesting legal issue about whether they should use ambidextrous cards Maybe they do ... I'll have to check

www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/playing_cards.html

Car boots! Some cars only have a grab handle / slot on the right hand side when trying to close the boot

note books bound on the right Oh how I wish we'd had them when I was at school

Watch out for appliances with a dial - microwave, washer etc. I broke ours as a child because I turned the dial with my left hand and broke the mechanism. It couldn't cope with anti-clockwise. A good peeler is worth investing in, as the old style potato peelers don't work for left handers ime.

You just learn to adapt - readers for tickets / travel cards are always on the right, mugs always have the design on one side so it shows if you hold the hug in your right hand etc.

mugs always have the design on one side so it shows if you hold the hug in your right hand etc. does anyone really alter how they hold a mug so that other people can admire the mug??

My DS is left handed he uses the Stablio pen posted earlier he finds the easiest to write with.

He has these scissors. But are mainly because he has hyper mobility and his hands over extend when using 'ordinary' scissors.