Left handed people

[ItchyScratch]

Do you know today is
‘International Left Handers Day’

I am not left handed but all 3 of my kids are (which I find weird!)

Do you have any tales to tell as a left hander?
Are you proud to be one or is it a nuisance?
Did you grow up in the era when it wasn’t allowed 😳

[Mummyofboys88]

I'm another proud leftie! I'm 32 so went to school at a time when it was absolutely fine. Could never get the hang of the leftie scissors, so cut right handed with right handed scissors. Actually seem to do quite a lot with my right hand. I have 2 sons and 1 is also a leftie. I'm the only leftie on my side of the family, but DH comes from a family of a lot of lefties. He actually felt it was unusual to be right handed!

[thefemaleJoshLyman]

@JoshLymanIsHotterThanSam ditto, great name and I agree!
Although to be fair Rob Lowe is still hot...

[Kaiserin]

I'm mostly right handed (but for some reason left footed! confusing...?)
DH is left handed.
One of our DS is "both handed" (as he puts it), with a slight preference for the left hand.
Other DS is mostly right handed, but rather dextrous with his left hand as well.

Both DS like to colour and draw with one pen in each hand
And they keep elbowing each other at dinner time as they randomly swap hands while holding cutlery...

[Raahh]

And 'hot desking' at work was always fun.

Everyone knew where I had been, because I would swap the mouse mat over to the left side of the keyboard. .

[MrsFezziwig]

Mid-sixties leftie and I love being different! No-one tried to make me write with my right hand. I cut right-handed but can’t use a normal peeler so I just use a knife. Cheque books were a pain but fortunately almost defunct now. Another rather niche disadvantage is that it is impossible for a right handed person to show me how to tie (sailing) knots.

Can’t see the issue with knife and fork, I use them the normal way as wouldn’t you rather use your most dexterous hand for the fork?

Being left-handed as a kid used to give me at least one rounder’s advantage in sports as I used to sidle up to the square holding the bat with both hands in front of me and then whack the ball in the opposite direction to where the fielders were expecting!

[coffeerice]

In our group of six female friends 5 are lefties. I'm the right handed one. My DC are lefties too. I seem to attract them!!!

[wowfudge]

Yes - I used to whack the ball into the hedge round the field playing rounders at school.

Some cutlery is right handed - like the cutting tyne on old fashioned cake forks. Fish knives usually only work if held in the right hand.

[PenguinIce]

I love being left-handed! I use to feel so special when I got to use the ‘left-handed scissors’ at school....no common scissors for me (although truthfully I have never noticed the difference in them)

[Thecobwebsarewinning]

I’m a leftie and using a mouse right handed would be completely beyond me. Just trying to mime it just now was difficult. However I’ve never had a problem with scissors. I do a lot of intricate crafts and use right handed scissors without a problem.

No one has mentioned tennis - I found that very hard at school. Maybe because all my teachers were right handed.

I am also completely useless at telling my left from my right when giving directions. I can’t instinctively picture it at all. I have to stand and face the way I’m meant to be going and run the route in my head and even then I still make mistakes quite often. All my D.C. are right handed and have never had the slightest difficulty in this area. As soon as they learned to write they just knew left from right instantly and never get it wrong. That was amazing to me.

[MitziK]

DSis is lefthanded and got told off at school for it. Married a leftie who was caned by the Nuns for it. Both daughters and both granddaughters are right handed.

I was, or was at least ambi, but was encouraged to use my right, rather than forced - I used to do things like decide to try writing backwards and things like that just for entertainment value and have a vague memory of repeatedly having a crayon taken out of my left hand and placed in my right when I was learning to write my name and doing it with the paper pinned up on a sloping surface, as I couldn't do it with flat paper on a table. Still can't manage cutlery the right way around, have a cracking left hand volley and used to chop and change stance when kickboxing with great effect - although I'm out of practice, I can also play a guitar/other stringed instruments with the headstock on either side (I refuse to say 'play lefthanded' because you use both hands to play a guitar). Like somebody using their left hand has to turn the paper towards their writing hand, I have to do exactly the same to be able to write with my right hand.

DP is lefthanded. He has amazing writing, the sort of thing you'd expect from a professional graphic artist. He manages quite well using his right hand for a lot of things, but he really struggled with sawing things/slicing bread - I had to physically put his hands in the right position to be able to choose to use either right or left.

The only inconvenience is where he uses one of my fineliners, as we're writing in almost exactly opposite angles (if dead straight were 6pm, he's writing at 8.30 and I'm writing at about quarter to four), he makes the pens completely unusable, so it's the only thing where there is an absolute ban upon the other person 'borrowing a pen' unless it's a marker or sharpie.

[Ginkypig]

Oh and my most recent tiny annoyance is my iPhone buttons are on the wrong side for me so I quite often catch the volume button when I try to lock it. Oh and the slide went the wrong way when there was one.

I realised that if I was holding it in my right hand (like I suppose the majority of people would) the layout of the buttons are designed so that naturally you don't touch the other buttons when you lock it because it's on the thumb side.

[TheGriffle]

My dd1 is a little genetic marvel, she’s a redheaded, blue eyed, leftie.

Me and Dh are right handed but my mum is left handed as well. I keep telling her she will have to teach dd how to tie shoe laces for us so she doesn’t learn it back to front.

[OrangeFluff]

My left hand is very dominant, but I have learnt to adapt to a right handed world, so don’t find things too difficult. I am proud to be a leftie! It feels special

I agree with the PP about learning to use right handed scissors- my mum taught me to use right handed scissors from the beginning, and I’m so glad!

When writing I turn my page clockwise 90 degrees, so that I write from top to bottom. It stops the awkward hand position and smudging. Would recommend this to any leftie kids struggling.

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

I’m a Leftie!

I use right handed scissors but in my left hand. I’m no good at cutting out neatly. I don’t have the strength in my right hand to use scissors.

Bread knife, peelers, tin openers are the bane of my life. I have to turn things upside down and inside out.

My DC aren’t lefties nor are my parents or grandparents. I am a bit sad I can’t teach my DD to plait hair or tie a bow. I’ve had to delegate to DH. Unless they copy me mirror image, but that’s hard to do.

An elderly neighbour taught me to knit when I was a child, but I’m still useless. My needles point down not up. My knit is a purl and so on.

I’m sure we have a super power, not sure what!

[Babdoc]

I’m a lefty and so is my younger DD.
My kitchen is set up entirely left handed in layout. My older right handed DD has to adapt!
When I was a junior doctor in my first surgical job, my consultant was v impressed that I could cut his sutures with my left hand when assisting in theatre. It was a while before he realised the reason!
As a medical student I had to examine patients from the “wrong” side of the bed, and I remember a crusty old consultant shouting “Are you bloody left handed or something?” - he was very taken aback when I grinned and said “Yes, actually!” But at least he apologised and told me to carry on.
The DDs used to tease me that I was a witch - being left handed, owning a black cat, and practising the healing arts.
I told them of the time DH drove me to Schonhoven, where they burnt the last witch in Holland. I’d just been deemed light enough to fly on a broomstick by the witches weighing house in Oudewaater, so DH joked that he would burn me.
I told him I’d cast a spell to prevent it - and he was v spooked when the moment we arrived at the market square, the heavens opened with a downpour of rain! I of course claimed responsibility...

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

I do the hook cramp writing. That’s the only time it’s bothered me. Had some cruel comments over the years about “cack handed” from members of the GP when I was working in retail.

[lazeonthesofa]

DS1 is a leftie, DS2 is right. Both DH and I are right but MIL and most of DH's family are left but not DH's sister. I found it impossible to teach DS1 to tie his shoelaces and left that to MIL to do. We've had DS1 laying the knives and forks 'the leftie way' but he is used to coping with most things as he loses the left scissors and other stuff I got him and has to use the usual ones we have! His handwriting is awful but MIL's is lovely. He used to find it an advantage playing tennis when younger tho.

[Feminist10101]

@MulticolourMophead

Oh, I meant to add that I've recently been watching a lot of Asian street food videos online, and it's been noticeable that so many people are left handed. I wonder if the attitude to left handedness is different to ours?

Genetics tend to be closer in Asian communities - cousin marriage etc.

[Chottie]

Another leftie here.

My DF was made to write right-handed sadly.

I have a LH DD and a LH DN. I do everything left handed except for using a knife and fork, knitting and crochet. There was very little LH equipment when I was growing up. I still have a scar on my hand from a deep cut when using a scalpel to take a specimen in biology at school.

I also have a scar from trying to open a corned beef tin with the little metal key. I had to use a fountain pen at school and found it difficult not to smudge my work. There is much more understanding nowadays. I hope children are no longer described as 'cack handed'.

[Feminist10101]

Tennis - I have a mean back hand thanks to all the right handed games teachers!

[Feminist10101]

There’s evidence that the more scans you have whilst pregnant, the more likelihood of a left hander. And babies show their handedness in the womb. Amazing.

[Feminist10101]

www.sciencealert.com/science-can-predict-left-handed-people-before-they-are-born

[Carycy]

I am a lefty and a sonographer and had to learn to scan with my left hand. I see it as an advantage as I can occasionally flip to my left easily for certain things I am also developing RSI through the job in my right shoulder and glad it isn’t my dominant Arm. I think I use less fine control with the scan probe righties seem to hold it more like a pen which makes me them more prone to rsi as well.
My writing is horrendous and I am really slow. I was never really taught properly and it always held me back in exams. I had so much more to say but just couldn’t get it down in time. I think that is why I gravitated to the sciences as the exams are less writing heavy. I also struggled in class taking notes. They would flip to the next bit before I had finished and my work was always a mess. Made to use a fountain pen at high school. Ink everywhere.
Make sure you children sit on the correct side Of the classroom when they get desks and school. And make sure the teacher knows how to deal with lefties.
Also any fighting sports such as fencing are worth getting into. I cleaned up when I got into with only moderate talent as people found it hard to fight me.

[Bravefarts]

So, the scissors were a wasted purchase! Ok. I'll look at leftie peelers, knives, though.

Thank you!

[Feminist10101]

obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1469-0705.2002.00659.x