If you're left handed...

[Sparklfairy]

Do you do anything right handed? I've realised at 34 I always use scissors right handed, probably because left handed scissors in school were a rarity and didn't work that well anyway, so I just got used to it.

I also eat right handed, knife in my right hand. Of course most people don't know it's the 'wrong' way for me.

My right hand is otherwise useless though, I'm very dominantly left handed. I can't even easily push the button to open the microwave with my right hand!

My grandmother was of the generation where left handedness was a sign of the devil (Irish Catholic) and it was trained out of her.

How useful (or useless) is non-dominant hand?

I eat right handed too. And I still have bad memories of a teacher trying to get me to write 'correctly" in primary school

I also eat right handed and I play the guitar right handed (because I didn’t know not to when I started and now I can’t be bothered to re learn even though I would be a better player if I had learnt left handed in the first place).

Other than that, left handed all the way. I have several pairs of left handed scissors.

I am left handed but will like you have eat with my knife on my right hand. When playing tennis I switched hand constantly. My left is predominant but I can use my right for some task

Same, use scissors in my right hand, also eat with the fork in left hand, just makes sense to me. Why swap hands when using say a fork or spoon on its own.

In terms of sports. I’d play tennis etc left handed, but anything two handed such as hockey, golf, cricket, I’d play right handed. I’m weird I think.

I'm right handed but eat left handed. Made more sense to me to have the fork (which I use most) in my right hand.

I was always being told as a child that I was eating 'wrong'. But not by my parents so I carried on! I wouldn't say I'm ambidextrous but I do quite a few things with my left too.

I write with my left hand but do most other things like scissors, chopping etc with my right. My mum told me I used to swap from one to the other when I was colouring with crayons. We didn't have anything like left handed scissors at school though so I guess I had to adapt.

I use right handed scissors in my left hand, I’ve learned to put pressure on the blades in the right place.
I eat with fork in left hand and knife in right - seems logical to me that the fine motor skills bit is done by my left hand.
I play golf, baseball, cricket right-handed. Always did have a much stronger backhand.
I use a mouse with my left hand but never bothered to switch the button functions around.

Left handedness runs in the family - my dad, DD and DNephew are all left handed. I remember once we rocked up to an archery course and before we started if any of us were L-H. They got a bit of a surprise when we all put our hands up.

Same story as you with scissors, garden tools, even prefer basketball with my right (based on these things being taught to me by a right handed person). Badminton, interestingly enough, I need to use my left or I’m utterly useless! Same with ping pong. I realise I come across really sporty here but these are just activities where I’ve had those “Wow, I can’t do this with my right” moments. I couldn’t have my fork in my right hand to eat with, for me the fork is the main utensil so obviously I want that in my dominant hand. When I cut vegetables using a sharper knife that’s always with my left or I wouldn’t retain any fingers!

I use my knife in my right hand.
Otherwise I’m very left handed.

My granddad was made to write with his right hand at school.
He did everything else left handed though.

Lefties recover more quickly after a stroke.

I think the term to describe it is 'cross laterality'.
My adult son writes with his right hand but uses the left hand for everything else including sports. He's left footed as well but can switch out effortlessly. This all happened naturally.

My DS uses his left hand for precision and his right for strength. He eats and writes left handed but uses a hammer with his right. In cricket he bowls left and bats right, for golf he’s left and for tennis he has two forehands and no backhand by changing hands with the racquet. His great, great grandma was ambidextrous too, the rest of us are all right handers.

Arent well just a clever bunch of people! I love being left handed 😊.
Right handed: Eat, pour a kettle, scissors, hold a toothbrush, guitar, golf, snooker cue.
Left handed: write, use a knife, paintbrush, iron, dust, wash pots, sew
Either hands: racket sports, use a mouse, typing, hold hairdryer.
Probably loads more I cant think of.....oh one thing I cant do is write nicley with a fountain pen 😂

Anything that requires fine motor skills DH uses his left anything involving gross motor skills or force he uses his right. It’s really interesting.

Eat right handed if using a knife and fork, but just left hand if single cutlery item. Use a compute mouse with my right hand, but only use a desktop at work, so found it easier to leave the mouse where it was. Other than that, all left dominant. I'm due shoulder surgery on my left shoulder in the next couple of months. That's going to be fun! Already wondering how I'll manage.

The only thing I do left handed is write and butter bread. Everything else I do right handed.

I eat right handed too, and use a mouse with my right hand, this was because of shared public/family computer when I was younger always having the mouse to the right. I've also learnt to use right handed scissors in my left hand by putting pressure on the blade in ways needed to make them work.

I do pretty much everything but write with my right hand I think. Except peel veg. My two DDs are also left handed, I’m curious now how they do these other things now. I think I’ve seen them use scissors with their left hands, which I just can’t do.

I’m left handed but I use scissors, cutlery for eating etc all the right handed way. Most things I’m able to do right handed, I can just about write legibly that way too though it’s not as comfortable or natural as in my left hand. I would automatically go to throw/ catch an object with left hand too.

Interesting about the stroke recovery. In a similar vein I always notice when actors are left handed on TV. There seems to be a disproportionate number of them and I have a vague theory about creative types (is it right brain?) often being lefties which I haven't thought through at all and I'm probably wrong

With sports like hockey, how are left handed people supposed to hold the stick? Thinking about it now I always had my right hand lower down, now I'm thinking maybe it should have been my dominant hand doing the steering.

I also completely confused a right handed friend who once attempted to teach me guitar upside down

I like being left handed too @Ilikewinter, although I'm a bit put out that the world isn't built for us. Even my new kettle only has the water levels written on one side, so my natural inclination to put the handle facing left means I can't see how much water is in it

I do everything left handed apart from throw/catch a ball, bowl etc. Tennis/cricket I would use my left hand. Also use a mouse right handed, it means I can use the computer and write notes at the same time!

Mainly use my left hand for most things. If scissors are good, I can use both.

I work as nurse and healthcare is definately set up for right handed people, it's annoying. Like others, I use my left hand for precision and when treating patients I usually have to move anything to left in order to preform the task.
I usually get a comment, sometimes negative and it's annoying.

My whole family are right handed and make fun of my left handness.

It's alway a pleasure and joy to meet other left handed people.

Computer mouse is literally the only thing I do right handed, but I always feel my mouse skills are limited by being forced to use my right hand - I'm conscious I am not very dexterous with it which can be embarrassing when you're working with someone on something.

To those who use it left handed - what happens with the buttons? Can you also switch them over so a right click becomes a left click? Or do you just physically move the mouse to the other side of the keyboard and get on with it?

I think all us lefties have learned to adapt. When I go sailing for instance and have to coil a rope although I hold the standing part in my right hand and coil clockwise using my left, I do this facing aft rather than forward so that it coils the same way as a right handed person (anti-clockwise). This stops the rope kinking as you always have to follow the 'lay' of the rope.

I haven't used a mouse for years but now I realise I always right clicked with my index finger, left clicked middle finger... actually <moves hand with imaginary mouse> I think left click was both fingers!

Another leftie here.
I do almost everything left handed.
I do eat the 'typical' way, with fork in the left hand and knife in the right, but I think that is the easier way - scooping and aiming for your mouth, with your left hand ? Same as a spoon, which I would hold in my left hand.

I'm surprised about the scissor comment from a 34 yr old - I've been teaching longer than that and we've always had left handed scissors in the classroom.

Things I find impossible difficult are tin openers, those keys you used to get on sardine cans, and cake forks
Oh, and it used to be writing in the stub of a cheque book (which not many people even have anymore), and, when I was at college, the chairs that had a little writing table on the right hand arm, and ignored the fact that some of us might be left handed.