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 😳

[EBearhug]

My sister's a lefty. Her handwriting was always quite neat, though, whereas I was the last in my class to be allowed to use a fountain pen rather than pencil, because of my handwriting.

We suspected Dad was left-handed as well - he wrote right-handed, but used most tools left-handed. He was of an age where he'd have been forced to use his right hand for writing.

I am mostly right-handed, but can write with both (not necessarily neatly) and sometimes use my mouse left-handed and do other things with whichever hand is free.

I don't get the spiral bound notebook thing. I write on both sides of the paper, so whichever way you write, every other page will feel awkward, won't it? I most avoid spiral bound notepads partly because of this.

[EBearhug]

I work with a lot of left-handers. I think it's partly a techy thing.

[pawpawpawpaw]

When I was little I wanted to learn how to use scissors and we only had right-handed pairs. My mum brought me home a left-handed one that evening iirc but I had got used to using the right-handed ones. Many years later I trained as a hairdresser and the hardest part was learning how to hold the comb and scissors in the same hand. I don't have the strength and coordination to comb with my right hand but I'm not used to cutting with my left, I never really got used to it. Only scissor-over-comb ever felt natural.

[PickleSarnie]

Only thing I ever found difficult was filling in the stub on a cheque book (which isn't a problem these days) and knitting. No one had the patience to teach me back to front.

Tin openers, scissors etc are fine. I seem to have somehow conformed with computer mouse and use it in my right hand. Think I'd struggle actually with it in my left now.

[PickleSarnie]

@EBearhug

I work with a lot of left-handers. I think it's partly a techy thing.

Me too!!! I work in a fairly techie environment. The last team I was in had more lefties than righties which was strange.

[MintChocAddict]

Also didnt realise that most people couldnt use the mouse and take notes simultaneously until recently.

News to me too!! I feel very smug now

I'm another lefty who writes with left hand but can do most things easily with my right hand. Have never used left handed scissors etc so not sure how easy I'd find them

[FlorrieMango]

Myself, my Mum and my Dad are all left handed! Though, bizarrely I play all sports right handedly ...!

I am very meticulous about my handwriting so can find smudging the pen extremely frustrating

[redeyetonowheregood]

I come from a strong line of left handed women...my great granny, granny and mum as well as one of my uncles. One of my children is left handed. I am saddened as despite me pointing it out repeatedly, it took a long time for primary school teachers to move him so that he wasn't bashing elbows. They also didn't encourage him to tilt his paper. As a co sequence he writes with his hand hooked over at an almost 90 degree angle. It looks very uncomfortable and his writing is appalling.

Anyway, I am mid 40s and able to do many things with my right hand too. I can also write backwards really easily. Is this anything to do with being left handed?

[ndo4000]

Another proud leftie here. None of my dc are though, which was slightly disappointing!

Primary school tried to make me write with my right hand, until my Dm found out and went nuts! I did a lot of mirror writing as a little child. Not sure if that's a leftie thing, of just me!

Never had any specific left handed stuff, but things that I found tricky were tin openers (my parents ended up getting an electric one for me!!) and ring binders. Also always found it difficult to know which hand I should use when playing tennis, hockey, etc.

[StCharlotte]

I'm used to adapting, but I get irrationally annoyed with train barriers as the card readers are on the right, so lots of changing hands or leaning over.

I never understand this - just use your right hand (as I did when commuting for decades). It really isn't hard.

I've had a left handed cheque book (Lloyds) and a left handed corkscrew and a left handed ruler.

I can use the mouse equally well with either hand having worked with right handed DH on a shared PC.

[Fred578]

I’m a leftie and the only issue I have ever had is writing ion something in a ring binder or folder. I’ve never had issues using right handed scissors or anything like that

[Fred578]

*on

[KenDoddsDadsDog]

I’m left handed and I’m delighted that DD is. I do most things right handed though, due to being taught that way in 70s. Means I’m shit at things like cutting out.
The only special thing I have is a potato peeler and time opener.

[Unescorted]

I am a righty … but grew up in a family of lefties. I do the things that left handed people do to work in a right handed world.

I hold things in my right hand BUT I iron towards me. I use scissors upside down and cut clockwise, carve joints left to right, I write in italics so I don't smudge the paper. handles on cups and saucepans are always tilted to pick up in the left hand.


My daughter is left handed - unlike my mum, mil, dad, and fil she is not caned to write with her right hand. Unlike my brothers, sil and bil she is not called cack handed and is put at the end of the line in class so she doesn't disrupt other people when she works the opposite way. Thank goodness for International Left Handed day - hopefully we will see a time when buttons are on both sides of a lift and keyboards work both ways.

[redeyetonowheregood]

@ndo4000 is mirror writing the same as writing backwards? I always found that really easy. I am left handed.

[Enderman]

I’m right handed and can write backwards with my left at the same time as writing forwards with my right. Is that what you mean?

[ipswichwitch]

DS1 is left handed, as are a third of his class! When he learned to write he spent a good few months doing mirror writing, and would write whole sentences that way. DH and I as well as DS2 are right handed, but my DB and SIL are lefties. I had to get SIL to teach DS1 to tie shoe laces because he struggle to get it, and try as I might I couldn’t do it like a left hander

[rednsparkley]

I'm a leftie, the only one in my family and there are none in DHs family either. All my kids are righties but eat left handed as I taught them all to use cutlery. Every dinner table is set for lefties which drives my DH insane 😂 He had to teach them all shoelaces.

I can't knit and spiral notebooks give me rage even though I do tilt all paper by 90 degrees for writing. I can't work leftie scissors but I love the sound of a leftie bread knife 😍

[drumandthebass]

Im a leftie too, but use my right hand for many things like using a mouse, ironing, holding a racquet. opening jars etc. However, I use my left hand on the rare occasion I sew or when 'cutting in' when painting.

I'd say that my right hand is more dominant and i seem to use it when doing everyday things like drawing the curtains or picking shit up off the floor.

I am the only leftie in a family of six and my husband is also a leftie but both DC are right handed.

[senua]

@Kittywampus

This thread is very helpful for a right handed mum of a left handed child!

My DC is about to start reception. He is pretty good at recognising letters, but is reluctant to put pen to paper and can't write his name yet. Please can someone explain about tilting the paper when writing? Do you mean that you turn it clockwise so that you would write downwards? Thanks.

Yes to turning it clockwise but you don't need to overdo it (30 degrees will do). Here's a video; it gets to the paper-positioning instruction at about 7 minutes in.

[GisAFag]

DS is left handed. Polar bears are left handed. Therefore, DS is a Polar bear

[sorryforswearing]

Strange that when I was at school being left handed was rare. Maybe one in the class. I teach now and for years only had the odd one. Now it’s not uncommon to have many more left handers. . I had seven in one class recently. It isn’t because pupils weren’t ‘allowed’ to be left handed when I was at school.

[lindauk5]

@VeggieSausageRoll

My son is a leftie, very obviously from about 9 months old, now almost 2, and we aren't. Any advice from the adult lefties? Any left handed gadgets we need to know about for when he's older?

My daughter is the same. She showed massive preference for her left hand at a very young age. We are both right handed, she is now 6 and it has made helping her learn to write be a bit complicated but other than that we haven't had any issues. She says lays all the places at the dinner table left handed which makes me smile.

[MouseholeCat]

Yay for lefties! I'm a lefty and both of my grandmas are too. Three of us out of our team of five at work are lefties- there are definitely some industries that attract us! We're in a specialism that requires lots of abstract and creative thought.

I started school in the early 90's and I think a lot of schools just didn't really pay much attention to it back then. I think they figured they weren't training kids out of it anymore so nothing else was needed. I was constantly placed at desks where I'd be bashing elbows, I'd get criticised for smudging my work but nobody told me how to adapt my book and there often weren't left-handed scissors available.

Nobody in DH's family is left-handed and he finds it so interesting all the things I do "backwards". Some things he just had no clue a left-handed person would do differently- like pan and mug handles being the opposite way in the cupboard or putting the blender jug back different ways. He also finds it weird how ambidextrous I can be with tools and sporting equipment. I was always taught by righties and often things like safety guards are positioned for righties, so it's easier to just use it that way.

[bottleofbeer]

Completely and utterly left handed.