Left handed preference - AIBU to try to change his mind?

[CoffeeDog]

We have been drawing/writting/colouring this morning.

DT2 has been holding pencils in his left hand (DT's are just 3). When my DD was first learning to hold pencil's my mum would be forever swopping from her left hand to her right hand - she is now right handed, and has neat handwriting.
She said she did this to make her life easier and to make sure she has neat handwriting.

DT1 only holds pencils in his right hand.

AIBU to think its not a big deal anymore what hand he holds a pen in as long as he enjoy's drawing/writing? or should i be constantly trying to get him to change hands?

Apparently the word sinister comes from the Latin for left handed!

Wikipedia says 'The Latin word sinistra originally meant "left" but took on meanings of "evil" or "unlucky" by the Classical Latin era, and this double meaning survives in European derivatives of Latin, and in the English word "sinister".'

nickelhasababy - thanks for advice re paper I will try with him.

Sorry for being nosy OP, but what was your DS genetically tested for? I've got images of the midwives getting him mixed up with another baby.

Thanks pjmam...wonder if left handers perhaps were supposed to be twins??

If your mum tries to get your DD to use a different hand please tell her to stop, she is unlikely to have good handwriting if she uses her non dominant hand to write with!

My primary one teacher in 1985 used to pick up my left hand and squeeze it painfully until I dropped my pencil, and then force the pencil into my right hand and squeeze it hard until I grasped it. She didn't explain why, just said I was doing it wrong and was bad.

I'm still a leftie but have abiding hatred for this teacher even all these years later. She did other nasty things but I think the memory of being so badly hurt by her just for trying to write is the worst.

Who hell he, yes there is a theory that many left handers were originally twins with the mirror effect, but the right hand twin was lost in very early pregnancy. There is also a theory that testosterone surge in mid PG that causes boys to develop their testes can affect the brain and cause left side dominance - more boys are lefties than girls and after their testes develop they produces their own testosterone which would give them more exposure.

Gosh that was boring sorry!

I was at school in the 70's and we all had to eat right handed, my DH had thsi as well so he ate right handed but was left handed.... so he would always set the table for other people left handed as his brain told him... me this way everyone else the other .

DS is left handed and the only thing I encourage him with is positioning when writing and drawing so that he doesn't do the 'twisted hand thing'

obviously I hope that DD will be left-handed, but if she's right-handed, then so be it.

interestingly, I have found myself putting things into her right hand - mainly because I'm using my left hand to put something into the hand opposite mine!

If she's facing away from me, I put it into her left.

Not that it matters yet, because she still can't grab anything
and i must remember not to put anything in her hand when she can.

I'm left-handed and although that in itself wasn't a problem at school, my non-standard grip resulted in endless battles which only stopped when we moved away and my new headteacher - also left-handed- made it clear that the horrible rubber pengrips were not to be used. (He had stunning handwriting, come to think of it, and did calligraphy for the school displays)

Meanwhile my husband is right-handed, perfect grip and abysmal handwriting. Mine is lovely if I say so myself.

aaagh. Definitely leave both DTs to it and they will find their own way.

My DM is in some ways the opposite - DS was clearly very left handed from a very early age - he did everything first with his left hand. He is now fairly ambidextrous and plays all sports right-handed, but writes with his left hand. His handwriting is awful - it's the one "thing to improve" in all his reports - and my DM keeps trying to say that is because he is Left Handed (i.e. that the teachers shouldn't criticise her DGS for it) - I keep telling her it's because he holds his pen wrong and it wasn't picked up in YR and nothing to do with which hand he uses, but she is adamant that he shouldn't be hassled about it

I hope that my children are right-handed, since I find being left-handed a pain in the arse (years of being The Only Left-Hander will do that) and I do do most things right-handed because it ends up being more convenient if not as good - I suck at cutting out shapes, for example. That said, if they are like me I'll know what to do - unlike my family who are, bless them, all right-handed.

Commander - i spent most of my life believing I was special and cool for being a leftie

and being able to be justifiably annoyed at manufacturers who still make everything right handed! not even ambidextrous but right handed!
I make a huge fuss about he safety features on power tools etc that allow a leftie to wield them one-handed when righties have to hold them with both, or those that the leftie can't even turn on because the switch is supposed to be under the right thumb, and must be held down in order for the equipment to work.
and how useful is a safety guard that's underneath the item, because the leftie has to hold it upside down in order to make it work?

and the more lefties there are, the more likely manufacturers will have to think about this as a design flaw.

Maybe I was a dopey child, but I honestly did not realise that I was 'different' until I was about 12 and a relative in Ireland said I was a coitog like my Granny. There was never any mention of it at school.

When I started work, computers were very new (v.old!), and I asked my boss to buy me a left-handed keyboard with a keypad on the left, so I could enter the orders quicker. They cost about £500 and he laughed me out of his office! I wonder could I have done him for discriminiation! As another posted said, I had to adapt. I also asked my bank for lefthanded cheque books but the never existed - braille cheque books for but none for 10% of the population who would have liked them!

I had hopes that my kids would be left handed though as its actually hard sometimes to teach them to write well or do some things with them. I am doing toe-by-toe (spelling/reading workbook to help with dyslexia) with DS at the moment and you have to tick off words as they say them correctly - so, this is immpossible if sitting on his right as I would elbow him in the face, and difficult if sitting on his left as I have to reach around over him and nearly cripple myself!

nickel - I have spent ages trying to find left handed cameras / video cameras - they do not exist.

It drives me crazy they way there is no option in so many things. When buying a hob, I needed the knobs on the front, not on the right obv. There were TWO to choose from in the whole of John Lewis.

TheSockPuppet

He use to cry ALOT when he was around 1 ish he would start stiffening his whole body and just SCREAM. I kept taking him back to gp who kept sending me away. I was lucky enough to see an older GP who was covering he imediatey sent me up A&E with a note saying i am not a neurotic mother and that the child needs to be propply looked at... It all started from there ped on call said he looked 'odd' ALOT of doctors would say he look's odd and 'a bit funny' i was beggining to think it was a technical term...(he look's nothing like his twin but as they are non id its not a big surprise) they sent me to consultant ped who sent him for MRI and genetic tests - he has a small nose and slightley downsloping eyes and was a behind his brother in milestones. Genetics consultant told me he dosn't have any condidtion that is 'known' (again I KNEW as he was non id twin that was pretty normal as well). MRI showed he had a pronounced Arnold Chari malformation - his brain grows down towards his spinal colom resulting in not enough room for spine/nerves and everything else, He would have had horriable migraine type pain or so they tell me He needed surgery - he has had it fantastic St Thomas's hospital and is fine now - Neuro check up next week ;)

I remember posting when he was in hosp about my mum insisting there was nothing wrong with him and that i just picked him up too much ;)

A few people in playground will ask 'what's wrong with him' as he does look a little like a down's child around the eye's. I have since found he look's the spitting image of DH uncle when he was a child. DH uncle is now a very good looking man, who married a very good looking man of his own ;) So i am pretty sure DT2 will turn out just fine, left or right handed ;)

at RichManPoorMan's point about being good at sport. My DS is a leftie and looks like he will be sporty.

Has anyone actually opened a store called the Leftorium, in the style of Ned Flanders? Wish they would.

left-handedness is a huge advantage in many sports. How do you know if your child is going to be a future star tennis player?

DS is clearly and has always been left handed from day one I would.

I have to say he is more creative then his 2 older sisters. He will sit and draw/colour for hours where as my older 2 would get bored by the time you got the pens and paper out.

He is what he is.

Leave it be.

Me, DP and DD are all left handed. We are waiting to see if our baby will be too. I'm not sure what I'll do with a right hander

oh I know! paula - hobs with the knobs on the right are an accident waiting to happen!!
I have loads of upside down pictures from my phone, because it takes the picture as if you're holding it with the right hand - quite funny when it's a video!

Eighties - try www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk - it's fab :)

Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine was left-handed -that's why all the buttons are on the right and the free arm is on the left - it's a lot easier to manoeuvre the fabric if you're a leftie - as the arm with the most movement allowed is the left.

It's easier to type fast if you're a leftie too - the qwerty keyboard was designed to stop right-handed typists typing so fast - the keys used to jam, so all the most used letters were put on the left.

It's an interesting thing, this left handedness lark. I HATE seeing my DD cutting up an apple - she's left handed - if looks so-o-o-o awkward and dangerous. I am quite sure that if she worked in a factory, say, where you had to be quick and dextrous, it would be a disaster!

I'm actually beginning to think the big No-no about changing children's handedness is just today's fashion. I know an old lady whose handedness was changed at school; she's perfectly fine being right handed now, but she says there are various things where she still uses her left for preference. My DD says she wishes I'd made her change over to using her right hand! But I was being politically correct and thought I'd turn her into a jibbering wreck if I interfered, so of course I didn't try. She didn't like other people's elbows being in her way (or hers in theirs) when she was sitting writing next to someone at primary school.

I've come to the conclusion that, if you want to, you can perfectly well change a child's handedness without harming them in any way!

Just be kind about it... and patient.... talk to them about it - but if they get upset, best to leave well alone.

i use this to swap my mouse buttons around - the "right-click" in the left hand is still the index finger

dotnet - interesting you should say that, because I feel the same way every time I see a rightie doing something with a knife!
you can get left-handed knives on anythinglefthanded, too - the sloped part of the blade is on the opposite side, so it might make her look a bit safer when she's cutting.

and your DD should ask to sit on the left of the table.
:)