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?

Good thread, I was thinking about this the other day!

Use right handed scissors with left hand. Just used to it.

Bottle openers, this makes family laugh cos I use my left hand to screw into the cork then unscrew/turn the bottle with my right hand. Looks awkward but works!

Any racquet game I have to use my right hand. My left feels useless!

I can cut in with paint as in decorating with my right hand.

I like being left handed and my offspring is too!

I'm not but 2 of my dc are. They are mixed, one manages scissors and serrated knives etc not problem but swaps cutlery round and eats knife left and fork right. The other needs left handed scissors and so on but eats the "right" way round.

My house has 2 of most things so that e have a left handed version. 3 of us are right handed and all have got used to using lefthanded scissors as often those are the only ones to be found.

Interestingly with the dc the one that needs more left handed versions was clearly and strongly left handed from the moment they began reaching out and grasping things. The one that manages with right handed versions was far less clear and didn't really settle until nearly school age. They are the younger one so there were left handed things around all their life so not a case of having to use right handed due to lack of choice.

@UsingChangeofName My vague memory is that the left handed scissors were either shite or only one set with more than one left hander in the class. It was definitely something that it was easier to just work out how to use the normal ones!

Both my parents are left handed but none of their siblings are. I have two siblings who are both right handed.

Lefty but very cross lateral, as were both parents. So I write left handed, but can write legibly both forwards and backwards with both hands.
Sport was always a bit of a nightmare as I didn't have a dominant hand/foot, so would swap and therefore was mediocre on both sides!
Cut bread/peel/open bottles left handed, but use mouse and scissors right handed.
Something like a tin opener I use either way.

And I ALWAYS note, like pp, if a musician or sports person is a lefty, spotting another member of the club!

DS(4) is left handed. He does almost everything with his left, and has done ever since he started using his hands. He was very clearly left handed from the start, whereas DD(9) swapped between when she was little, and ended up being right handed.

The only thing he does with his right is the mouse on the PC. DH and I had a very long discussion about whether to swap it over for him, but decided it would be better for him just to get used to it with his right. He does okay with it - well, as okay as a four year old can with a mouse! - but sometimes I wonder whether that was the right thing to do.

I'm left handed but had cause to think when someone said they brush their teeth right handed; if I am using a normal manual toothbrush I am left handed, but my electric toothbrush I use right handed. I wonder if it's because it doesn't need me to use any motor skills really. I had terrible trouble as a child using scissors and still have problems cutting out, I eat with the fork in my left hand, but I am very predominantly left handed.

I can use my right hand for a lot of things..not entirely ambidextrous but if I injured my left arm I'd manage just fine.

I tend to swap hands a lot if I'm sewing or playing sport. But i iron, brush my hair, drink a cuppa always with my left hand.

Also find tin openers rather tricky and often have a bit of trouble with spatial activities..for example if I'm folding the sheets with right handed DH I always go the wrong way if that makes sense?!

Do most things right handed other than write

Am surprised by so many lefties being able to do so many things with their right hand. I do everything with my left, bar knitting and that was taught to me by my mother (a leftie) and grandmother (leftie who was made to use her right hand by the nuns at school). Tried left handed knitting but am too old to change now.

The thought of using right handed scissors is quite frightening. DH still can't watch me cut bread after nearly 30 years as it scares him 🤣

I always use my left hand for my mouse.
Middle finger for left click, forefinger for scrolling and right click

I’m a leftie and eat left handed and as with some others, I use right handed scissors in my left hand. Computer mouse I use right handed as I think that was how the computers were set up in school (only started computer lessons in secondary school!). I throw right handed, but things like tennis and cricket I can play in either hand.
I feel like my strength is in my right for some reason, so big saucepan full of something I would pick up right handed, but then I sort of twist and turn and sort of pour it out backwards! DH is most discombobulated watching me sometimes 🤣
I kinda hoped DS would be a leftie with me, but that was just cos when he was a baby, I would hold him on my left hip, so he only he had his left hand free iyswim Once he was free and toddling, he was a rightie 🤨

I do everything right handed except writing.

I’m a leftie and I do everything left handed, I broke my hand once and the hardest thing was brushing my teeth right handed. I play piano, apart from that my right hand is essentially surplus to requirement.

I do most things left handed, but I eat "normally", happily use a fountain pen and standard scissors left handed. I don't have anything specialist left handed. The thing I am worst at is using a cork screw, so maybe that's a left hand thing?

I use a mouse right handed because one parent insisted it was left on the right side of the computer in spite of the fact that over half of the household was left handed. It's very handy for reading things while you make notes though.

I used to play hockey right handed because there wasn't a left handed stick.

I am fairly left handed but not incredibly so - I'm happy to do things like whisking stuff or pouring right handed if that's the more convenient option. I can write right handed, but it looks about like a 7 year old wrote it and it's not speedy like writing left handed. I do suspect that that is at least partially caused by lack of practice.

I eat right handed. Everything else I do with the left

I write left handed and anything fairly delicate (toothbrush, picking cup of tea) is left but all sports are right handed, scissors right, right footed too. Also use right hand for mouse but that’s always made sense to me as pen in left to take any notes, mouse in right - makes sense. I think I’m probably about 50/50 left/right in tasks. Strength generally right hand and precision generally left hand.

The only thing I do left handed is write. Everything else I do right handed. I remember in the 80s teachers getting angry with me because I used to turn the paper slightly sideways to write 🙄🙄 so ridiculous. My Gran taught herself to write with her right hand because she was always told off for writing with her left so she could write beautifully with both. So weird!

I do most things the right-handed way I think? Scissors, knife & fork, guitar.
But I write with my left hand 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s called being cross dominant and means your left and right hand brains are more evenly matched.
I write left handed but do everything else right handed, painting I can switch between hands.

I also remember dreading the mini-whiteboards coming out at primary school, because I used to get yelled at for having ink all over the side of my left hand where it would rub out everything I’d already written 🤔🤔

Lefty but play guitar and use scissors and computer mouse right handed. Play pool and badminton left handed but will swap to other hand if needed

A lot of people on here, saying that they are left handed, but do XYZ with their right hand. You aren't left handed then. I write with my right hand, everything else left. Broken left wrist when my DD was a baby, absolute nightmare, trying to clean teeth,insert tampon. I worked 20 years on a Hyperacute Stroke Unit,saw absolutely no difference between level of improvement. My oldest DS is completely left handed as was my late DM.

The only thing I do with my left hand is write. Although have just realised I’m sipping my coffee with my left hand and that feels much more natural than my right - had never thought about it before.

When I was at primary school I was left to get on with writing with my left hand but a leftie boy in my class was made to write with his right. Perhaps my near-retirement teacher thought I wasn’t destined for much beyond the kitchen!
There were no left handed scissors either at that time - in fact I’ve never even tried a pair. Might go and investigate on Amazon.

I’m surrounded my left handers and do a lot of things left handed even though I’m right handed, I’m used to things being the ‘wrong’ way round.

I see on another thread,a lot of people claiming to be ambidextrous, because like me, they use one hand to write, the other for cutting veg etc. This isn't being ambidextrous, very few actually people are able to use both hands exactly the same