Happy Left Handers Day!

[MaybeAMoaner]

I’m not actually left handed but all 3 of my kids are!

What’s the best worst / thing about being left handed?

Hello I’m a lefty worst thing for me was scissors at school and pens. Especially fountain pens just a smudged mess but also those liquid gel pens always looks like a spider has crawled across my page.

Worst thing - Other left-handers giving us a bad reputation by holding cutlery the wrong way round or curling their wrist round at a ridiculous angle to write.

Best thing - it's obviously cooler than being a boring right-hander! 😃

The flip over desks we had at university were a bit annoying as they are very aligned for RHs. Knives I have always just used in my left hand and never had an issue. Scissors a bit more difficult as I do have to use my right hand but it's possible.

Someone here tried to explain what a LH corkscrew wad once and I still dont get it or why there is any difficulty at all about turning a corkscrew with either hand.

Best thing about being a leftie - when I switch hands and start writing with my right in a meeting and see some people scratch their heads 🤣 I'm virtually as good with either hand

Never had a problem with scissors, but I can’t work a potato peeler to save my life.

Fountain pens used to be a problem at school, our handwriting lessons were actually taught using dip pens ( and inkwells, I can still remember the smell of the ink) but no concessions made for left handed ness.

And , thinking back, guess which side of the desk the inkwells were!

Love this thread. My 4 year old is left handed and no one else in our family is!

Worst thing - my handwriting. Having to push the pen across the page rather than pull. I don't get how some lefties manage this do well. Then there's the ink smudge problem. I had to use fountain pens at school. I hated them. The nib would spilt so they were scratchy. My work just ended up terribly messy. I had no idea the problems I had were because I was left handed. Teachers hated me. It ruined my academic confidence. I've only recently linked a lot of things together.

Having said all that, my daughter is left handed and hasn't had any of those problems.

Maybe it's just me

@Brissiegirl

Best thing about being a leftie - when I switch hands and start writing with my right in a meeting and see some people scratch their heads 🤣 I'm virtually as good with either hand

My husband is a leftie but our son is ambidextrous.
He does exactly as you do basically for the looks from other people. Show off!😆
It's a cool thing.

The worst things for me are not being able to see what you're writing as your hand is always covering a bit of it. I can never keep my writing neat for very long. Never had any problems with scissors but I find tin openers difficult to operate.
Oh, and I can't knit/crochet to save my life, even by following instructions for left-handers. That might just be me though!

I write with my left and do everything else with my right.

I still get teased for the way I have to angle my hand when writing (I can't see otherwise!). And the constant smudging.

Love being a leftie.

Worst thing: lots of household equipment is designed for right handed people. Vaccum controls, strimmer controls, kettle tap, induction hob buttons... all the wrong way round for me. Infuriating when most of these could be solved by having the buttons/switches etc in a neutral position to suit both right and left handers.

People saying “ooh! You’re left handed!” A profound novelty!
A family member asking for the ‘proper’ scissors.
I love that my DP and I are both lefties, only improper scissors in our house. 😺

lots of household equipment is designed for right handed people. Vaccum controls, strimmer controls, kettle tap, induction hob buttons...
I don't understand any of this. Discounting a strimmer because I've never used one but all of those other things I've used without considering them handed at all. I've never had a kettle that had the switch any where other than centrally under or on top of the handle. Same for the vacuum cleaner.

Ooo I'm left handed, I didn't know today is our day! Worst thing for me is that I am very clumsy in the right handed world, you'd think at 50 I had learned to navigate it by now.

Backwards ticks! Always gets noticed and commented on.

Happy lefthanders day!

Not aware of this, thank you for telling us OP.

Handwriting ; Turn the paper 90 degrees and write top to bottom rather than left to right.
Scissors / Potato peeler etc ; left hand moves the paper / potato with precision dumber right hand just cuts.
The other ways seem too difficult for me.

OMG @ChubbyMsSunshine I didn't even realise backwards ticks were a left handed thing, I thought it was just me being weird!

@DappledThings Strimmer - button that has to be continually "squeezed" to operate on right of handle where is is hard to apply pressure with your left hand because it has been designed to be in the right place for a right hand to be.
Kettle Tap: if I hold the cup in my left hand as I would naturally do I have to reach across where the boiling water will come out to turn it on ( on left hand side of tap) and then remove right hand carefully when said boiling water is flowing. If the boiling control was on the right hand side of the tap , this wouldn't be an issue. But is clearly this way round to suit right handers.
Induction hob- control buttons on right- i have to reach across pans etc to turn an extra ring on or up or down.... Vacuum - Shark are particularly bad. Button to release cover to empty bin is on wrong side - to open it I have to swap the vacuum into my right hand. Same for switch to release the main vacuum part from the wand. Also , handy button to release "foot" bit that goes on the floor is on right hand side - to be operated by right foot.

Everyone in my family is left handed except me. The kettle is always facing the (imo) wrong way!

ATM machines are often shaped so that their is an indentation on the right of where you put the card in, I find it difficult to pull the card out with my left hand. Also I can't slice bread straight, the loaf is always wedge shaped by the end of me cutting it.

Happy LHD to me and all the other lefties! Did you know the original meaning of the word 'sinister' in Latin is 'on the left side'? Extract from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

The Left Hand of (Supposed) Darkness: On ‘sinister,’ ‘dexterity,’ ‘gauche,’ and ‘adroit'
Sinister, today meaning evil or malevolent in some way, comes from a Latin word simply meaning "on the left side." "Left" being associated with evil likely comes from a majority of the population being right handed, biblical texts describing God saving those on the right on Judgment day, and images depicting Eve on Adam's left. Consequently, the Latin for "right," dexter, finds its way into positive words like dexterous, and the French word for right (droit) is found in adroit.

White boards at school .. arrrggh

Best thing is that you have a big advantage when playing sports like fencing and tennis.

YY to a pp, the right handed desks at university. I sat through so many lectures taking notes uncomfortably.
Now the thing that catches me out is the boot of our car. When the boot is open, the handle to pull it down and closed is only on the right hand side. Gets me every time.
I've adapted to using right hand scissors and right hand mouse.

Good. Our creative brains.
Bad. Smudging the ink when trying to write neatly.