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 😳

I read this thread with interest as someone who is very right handed but my child (6) is possibly ambidextrous but I am not best placed to assist child to be natural and use which ever hand is preferred. Essentially I am not sure if still ambidextrous, initially left handed mostly noticeably age 2-4 and since five more right handed. The litmus test I assume being writing, drawing and painting etc as those I am guessing is the finer eye hand coordination motor skills. I normally place all cutlery etc in the middle or sometimes alternative as for a right and left handed user. I initially told pre school kindergarten key worker teacher and primary school teachers about this predicament and to closely monitor and access whether there is a particular pattern as to which hand is used for certain activities etc.

Has anyone experienced such a scenario? We are otherwise as a right handed only family. I have no preference for child but if ambidextrous I will be both amazed and delighted! Either hand is equal but of course possibly with the exception and rarity of purchasing special order left hand items such as certain musical instruments and sporting equipment. Any thoughts???

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.

The right hand doesn't sit on top of the spiral at the start of writing the the line in the same way as the left hand does no mater which side of the paper you write on you get some of it at the end of a line on the left side page but it's not the same inconvenience.

Both my parents are left handed but my brother and I are right.

However, having grown up in a left handed house I do so many things left handed. It’s so weird to try do these things with my right hand it’s like if just doesn’t have the strength

I don't really get the 'proud to be a leftie' thing. Im left handed, but it's just who I am, I don't particularly see it as something to be proud of. I've never used any special left handed equipment like scissors etc though. I think like is a lot easier if you just adapt to using what's most available.

I'm a pro8d leftie and my DS has emerged as one too. Yay! DH and DD are right handed so we are 50/50.
Being left handed has never caused me any problems apart from smudging the ink when I was little and learning to write.

I'm very proud of my left handedness and super proud I have 2 leftie dc.

My dad was left handed but hit with a ruler if he wrote with his left hand, so he's pretty ambidextrous.

I went to school in the 1980s and there were no left handed scissors etc, so I learnt a lot of things with my right hand. I play sport right handedly because I was taught to hold rackets etc that way, but I'm strongly left hand domonent and find things like fixed pens in the bank almost impossible.

Dc2 is very left handed and struggles with cutlery and handwriting - she's amazing at mirror writing, reading backwards and doing opposite dance moves etc though!

Dc3 is a leftie but much less strongly dominant. He will happily pick up a cup with his right hand for eg, which dc2 just wouldn't.

I find it fascinating.

I love being left handed and I think part of that is down to having been disadvantaged due to it and remembering that.

DH and I are right handed but DS is left handed and I’m fairly sure the toddler will be left handed too.

He has left handed scissors at home and I know school make sure he always is supplied with the left handed scissors at school.

Apart from that I haven’t done anything else. I’m kind of confused by the idea of left handed pencils.

Fascinating thread! I have a leftie and I know in some sports (archery) it can be tricky using equipment designed for RHs.

He's been learning to cook morw in lockdown (14) and it never occured to me that the knife may pose issues...I've also read that tin openers can be problematic - can anyone explain?

Both me and DH are lefties. If DS (7 months) turns out not to be, I'll be returning him for a refund.

Interesting - I've tried archery and don't recall my lefthandedness being an issue at all.

Leftie - early 30's. I use both the number pad and mouse on a PC with my right hand with no problem. I cut using right handed scissors, I did have left available at school but had already learned to cut with right handed scissors using my left hand.

My only major downfall is tin openers. The mechanism always breaks or is very uncomfortable on the old style metal ones. Dp insisted we get an electric one though so problem solved.

I’m a leftie!
I can only use scissors with my right hand though which is odd.

Oooh i have a story

Ds2 is left handed and during year 6 he told me that his teacher was annoyed because his homework was always smudged...not his school work.

So i went to whsmith and bought a massive selection of pens...week later still smudged and teacher still unhappy

Parents evening came up and i explained to the techer that we’d tried everything so was there anyway we could buy a pack of the school pens

She said yes and said she couldn’t figure out why his work was so smudged...after all it wasn’t as if he was left handed 😳

I said he was

She said are you sure

And i said yes 😀

That evening ds2 said ‘maybe that is why on victorian day when i was trying to write right handed miss didnt tell me well done like she did jack’ 😩

He only wanted a well done 😩😩😩😩

Apparently he write in exactly the same way a right handed person writes so no one realised

Another leftie.

The things that stand out for me being left handed:

Tin openers - I can't use them after a right handed person has.
Peelers fulls stop.
My DCs found it 'funny' that i showed them the 'wrong' way to dress, tie laces as they were right handed.
When at uni - all the lecture hall desks were set up for right handed people.
When preforming nursing procedures I get the odd comment - oh your left handed, thats why is set up wrong.

Walking the dogs - they both annoyingly walk on my right side.

I do enjoy the suprise and happiness when I met another leftie at work.

I’m a leftie, both my parents are too so I grew up in an adapted house but my children and DH are all right handed. It isn’t something I think about apart from having to swivel the kettle handle or saucepans if we cook together.
I never really thought about spiral bound books and ring binders, I always thought they were just a rubbish invention and inconvenient for everybody but never considered it was my hand getting in the way. Interesting!

I have found it an issue a few times trying to teach my kids something like tying shoelaces or cutting things, as I look awkward to them!

I was glad to see the back of chequebooks. I remember going in to the bank when I was about 18 and had just opened my first proper account, and asking them if I could have a lefthanded cheque book. The woman literally laughed in my face like it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard.

I also remember, about 20 years old, asking my boss for a left handed keyboard (with the number pad on the left), as I was doing all the data entry in the department. Boss sais no as at the time, late 1980s, they were about 5 x the price of an ordinary one. Totally discriminatory and a fasle economy really when you think about it! I did however, become super fast with the pad and also use a mouse in my right hand.

my mum and sister (and now DH) are lefties.
When we were little my sister was really bad at cutting bread, and my mum said this was because she was left-handed. So recently when we bought some unsliced bread, I sliced it all so DH wouldn't have to. He was confused and asked me not too - then when I told him it was for his own benefit as he was a leftie and lefties can't cut bread, he said he's never had a problem slicing bread and my mum lied!!

76 year old leftie, but Mum was told by her doctor friend on no account to make me change as I would stutter.

There were no left-handed scissors in my youth so I have always used right. At my primary school we had those wooden desks with the inkwells on the right hand side. I always dripped ink reaching them with the dipping pens we had to use.

A left handed ruler would be useful, numbers running right to left.

I an absolutely useless dealing with raffle tickets when you have to write names on each one and awkwardly tear it off.

No other lefties in the family except my DGD who is rightly proud of being ‘special’.

I’m shit at slicing bread and I’m not left handed. I don’t think it’s exclusive. I ‘hack’ it apparently.

Yeah I think it's just something my sister is bad at and my mum said it was because she was a leftie. My brother and I are right handed so we just accepted that answer! DSis is dyslexic and struggled with holding pens too to be fair...

Metal tape measures are the wrong way round too.

My brother and I are both lefties, but my parents are both righties- strange!

The only thing that bothered me was that my handwriting was never particularly neat and that's what I put it down to. Other than that I like being a leftie!

I’m going to do some painting with my DC, so I’ll be watching to see which hand my ‘writes with right but paints and uses scissors with left hand’ 5 year old uses!