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 😳

[Carycy]

Feminist10101 - this is a load of rubbish. Scans increased at the same time that left handed became more socially acceptable. That is all. That study has been shown to be wrong.

[Carycy]

Had to learn to scan with my right hand I should have said.

[senua]

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?
Agreed. I've never understood why right-handed people use a fork in their LH for putting food in their mouth but then a spoon in their RH for the same operation.

[peajotter]

Knitting- I use continental style, wool in left hand but knitting in same direction. My leftie dm taught me.

Scissors-I use right handed but move the paper rather than the scissors if possible.

Pens- make sure your child doesn’t curve their hand over the top when learning to write. If you’re left handed it smudges when you move to ink. I was fine with pencil but terrible with any ink pen.

Imo cutlery is left handed in the U.K. anyway. Use the more accurate hand for aiming for your mouth. This is why they switch in the USA after cutting their food up.

I play instruments right handed, but my technique is much more bass heavy (piano) or notes rather than rhythm (strings, guitar). My dd refuses to play guitar right handed though. I think she learned from pretend play and it’s stuck now.

It’s a right handed world so much as it’s frustrating it’s better to learn to live with it rather than getting special kit.

[seaweedhead]

I'm left handed, nobody else in my family is though.

I can use the number pad on a keyboard pretty well with my right hand. I uses to have a job which involved typing numbers in then writing stuff down on paper. I was faster than everyone else because I didn't have to alternate between pen and keyboard, I just had one in each hand.

[murasaki]

MY dad had his left hand tied behindd his back at school in the 50w to make him write with his right hand. His handwriting is, unsurprisingly, shit. He let me be as leftie as I wanted to be.

Back in the days of cheques, my mum got me a left handed cheque book so I could actually write on the stub, bless her. See also fountain pens and the like. I can write backwards (mirror writing) as fast as forwards.

[mineofuselessinformation]

I'm a leftie.
I write left-handed but eat right-handed because I was made to at primary school. My mum was furious when she found out but it was too late!
I use right-handed scissors because nothing else existed when I was growing up.
XH was left-handed too - but dcs are right-handed! That was a bit of a challenge with things like helping them write etc.

[Timeforanotherusername]

I'm a lefty but can also do things with my right hand.

I turn my page around when writing.

I can't use left handed scissors.

And i guess more due to the time I was brought up I have gotten used to doing things with right hand.

Both kids are right handed.

[nonchalantbee]

DH and I both lefties but our DS is looking like he'll be right handed, it's too soon to tell as he's only 22 months but seems to favour his right hand for most things

[UnitedRoad]

I’m right handed but an oddity in my family.

Mum, and big brother are lefties. Big brothers wife and my nephew are too.

My husband and daughter are, and so is my best friend

Happy Left Handed Day

[dartfordwarbler]

Lefty here...do other lefties find they tend to be more ambidextrous than their right handed acquaintances? I eat with knife in right hand, carry heavy things right handedly, play sport right handed etc.?

I’m in late 50s, primary school let me do my own thing to the extent of mirror writing till I was about 6: Anyone else write in mirror form?

[MaudesMum]

Lefty here. Apart from writing, I'm fairly ambi, using my right hand for lots of things (including computer mouse)- and also swapping between the two sometimes. So, I might start trying to hammer in a nail using my left hand and then have a go with my right. Never had any specialist left hand stuff until recently when someone bought me a pair of secateurs which are fabulous!

[Carycy]

Read Brill Bryson “ notes from a small island.” He is a lefty and said he was so happy when he came to the UK as the nation ate like he did.

[nildesparandum]

My S2 is left handed as was my father
He is also dyslexic, is now in his late forties and was at primary school before dyslexia was recognised.
His teachers blamed his inability to read and write correctly on his left handedness.I told them this was rubbish as my father never had problems and neither did other left handers I knew.They still persisted.
The result was he was put into remedial reading and other children called him a spacker which is a local word for someone with low intelligence.
He played truant in secondary school because of this and left school with no qualifications because he had hardly been there.
I am not saying anymore as it would out me but his IQ is quite high.He is now stuck in a mundane job but ding his best to improve himself now.

[peajotter]

For peelers we mainly have the ones with a central handle rather than the Lancashire ones. Even the Lancashire ones work both ways- if you can use it to peel towards the body and away then it is reversible.

Tin openers I use one that turns on top but it’s still tricky.

[nildesparandum]

@dartfordwarbler my DS dd mirror writing as well

[Raahh]

dartford I can write in perfect, cursive, mirror writing. I wrote 'backwards' before I did forwards. I have books from my childhood, with my name in them, in the front, in mirror writing.

[Feminist10101]

@Carycy

Feminist10101 - this is a load of rubbish. Scans increased at the same time that left handed became more socially acceptable. That is all. That study has been shown to be wrong.

Can you provide a link, please? Can’t see anything on google and NHS still advise against vanity scans and mention potential changes in handedness.

[CigarsofthePharoahs]

I'm left handed.
In school I wasn't made to be right handed but I did tend to mirror image things a lot so my first junior teacher decided I was thick.
I had both left and right handed scissors at home. I'm glad of this as generally only rh scissors tend to be available. I can use lh ones, but I'm better with my right. As a pp said, when cutting paper I tend to keep the scissors relatively still and move the paper.
Both my children are left handed. With ds1 it was obvious from very tiny. From the moment he could reach for anything he'd be left handed.
I didn't know with ds2 until he'd been at school a while. He's regularly used both hands, even when colouring as a toddler he'd swap the crayon from hand to hand. He does now write with his left hand but seems fairly ambidextrous. DH has had to accept he's very much in the minority!
No-one else in my family is left handed though.

[seaweedhead]

@dartfordwarbler I also eat with the knife in my right hand- think I tend to pull food apart though rather than actually cutting it. I have no problem with things like right handed scissors- that's all that's usually available so you just get used to it.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe]

MulticolourMophead, Yes! I tilt my writing pad at 90 degrees to write. It looks bizarre to non-lefties but, left-handers understand.

I peel potatoes right-handed (and am v.quick) the skill bit is manoeuvring the potato, used to iron right-handed... still can't cut slices from a loaf that look like actual slices.

[dustybluebell]

My son writes and cleans his teeth left handed, but does nearly everything else right handed.

[Cam2020]

I'm a lefty - inherited that from my dad. He had a horrible time at school and as others have mentioned, was forced to write with his left hand and felt stigmatised.

I've never had problems and easily adapted. I'm quite fortunate that I can use my right hand really well and do for most things except writing. My worst experience is being made to use the torturous left hand scissors in primary school!

The lefty line has ended with me - my daughter is a righty.

[Cam2020]

right hand

[Perdigal]

I am and my 5 year old is - a teacher told us to get him to turn the paper when writing at a slight angle. Really helps

Also MUST own left handed scissors as that can sometimes be actually very painful!