Encouraging right handedness in toddler

[Pearlsaplenty]

My 2 year has been showing a preference to using his left hand so I have been encouraging him to use his right hand by passing him thing to his right hand, kicking balls to his right side etc. I know it is very bad to force right handedness and I would never do that.

I would prefer him to be right handed as I know it is easier for general everyday living and also I have family members/friends who have said that it is more difficult to be a left handed when it comes to music eg learning guitars upside down if there is no left handed one to use.

Would I be unreasonable to ask his nursery to also encourage this?

Lol, it's never a good sign that people will have thought you are being reasonable if in half an hour you've got 65 responses

I completely agree with people here, you say you're not forcing him (I hope you're not wanting a pat on the back for not forcing him, what would that involve, cold showers and slaps with a ruler? ) but you are trying to control the outcome of something that is very natural.

I'm the opposite to you, I'm a leftie and was gutted that both of my DC showed no preference whatsoever for their left hand! I'm in my early 40s and still feel comradeship with someone if I find out they're also a left-hander, don't tell anyone but we all know we're special... and not in a bad way either. Please don't mess with his natural inclinations, you think you're doing it gently but the bottom line is that you are imposing a negative viewpoint onto something that doesn't need to be there.

Sorry this can happen - though am not sure about the scientific evidence. I guess it could be to do with confusing the non dominant side of the brain.

Floatingfree that is so true - we all know we are a bit special and, er, naturally superior :-)

ROFL at the Miley Cyrus salutory example. Be afraid, be very afraid.

In fact, everybody start forcing right-handers leftwards just to encourage whatever tendency is opposite to being Miley Cyrus.

I do encourage him by passing him things, I never correct him or put things in his hand.

I do most of it without thinking as I thought about it in advance and I deliberately don't vary the way I kick him the ball.

I try to sit opposite him so I can pass to his right side, which comes naturally to me. I just plan to do this in advance.

I do think that he has a strong preference already for lefthandedness both hands and feet. He usually swaps over and I hope you are all right about him not being at a disadvantage. Fortunately it doesn't seem to aftect his coordination as he has excellent coordination.

Why are you 'passing' him so many things?
It all seems a bit forced.
I have a 2yo and I don't think I've ever thought about how I 'pass' things.

Do you never just hold things out to him, or put things down?

Left handedness is an advantage for tennis players, so just work on those ball skills!

Also very easy to accommodate for violinists - you know it's the left-hand that does all the twiddly bits, the right holds the bow?

How about encouraging his development, rather than stifling it by confusing him and slowing it down?

I didn't really think about which hand I handed things to my children, but when you see them developing a preference, isn't it then natural to do what they are finding easiest? I probably handed things to my DC's left hands without thinking but they have grown up right-handed, one very strongly so.

With exercise such as catching or kicking a ball etc. then yes, in makes sense to get them to develop all round dexterity and balance (for right handers too though).

I read in my totally mainstream (ie not science/jargony) pregnancy book that handedness is determined DURING PREGNANCY

Nothing you do is going to change it so what you're doing is at best utterly pointless and at worst rather mean.

I'm left handed and it has never been a disadvantage to me - in anything. It's hardly rare - millions of people are left-handed, it's nothing to worry about.

I try to sit opposite him so I can pass to his right side, which comes naturally to me. I just plan to do this in advance.
Doesn't make sense as you have to pass diagonally instead or straight across.

if he is left handed he is left handed! the only problems will be caused by you trying to change this! my dd5 is a leftie and she has had no problems so far, school have been very good, working with her with left handed scissors etc. YABVU

I'm a left hander and it's never affected my life. I don't know why you are thinking so much into this? It's not a disability to be left handed you know...
Just leave him alone and let him do what comes naturally and stop planning things in advance.

i am left handed as is my daughter. no problems caused. i remember a horrible Brownie leader laughing at me for not being able to use scissors and it really, really hurt me )and has stuck with me for 30 years!).

if your son is left handed, then that's just the way it is. my daughter is an accomplished guitarist and learned to play 'right handed' with no issue.

so there.

Seriously - handedness is not an issue. Anyone can learn to do anything, guitar-playing included. Trying to rewire his brain to do the opposite to his genetic programming is not going to help.

I am right-handed (though only for writing) - am essentially ambi for everything else. I am also right-footed (meaning I lead with the right in things like snow-boarding - which is the opposite apparently of the majority of the population and so confused my snowboard teacher immensely as he had to set up my snowboard totally the "wrong" way). Trying to snowboard the "right" way is a total failure for me. My brain just can't compute/work it out, the same way my adolescent attempts to learn to write with my left hand failed.

Stop trying to change your son. It won't do him any good at all.

They shouldn't do it. I started to write with my left hand and was made to do it right handed. I was always being corrected at school and home because I would do things like hold tennis rackets the wrong way. Teachers were always asking me was I left handed and when I said I wasn't I was corrected so everything seemed very awkward.
My writing was atrocious and I had to go for extra writing lessons in p7. My mother always used to tell me I was talking rubbish and they didn't make me right handed even though I remember it clearly.
It was only in secondary school when we did the dominant eye test thing in biology and my dominant eye is my left that I was sure I was correct. It hasn't really bothered me much and am quite ambidextrous and able to write passably with my left hand but apparently my DH notices I still try to do stuff the wrong way round to him.

Yes pass across diagonally. Like shaking a hand

Btw, you could make exactly the same argument about sexuality and it is probably just as pre-determined, as handed-ness.

So OP, given that society is still geared, consciously and unconsciously, to favour heterosexuality, you will be 'steering' him in that direction too I take it?

I think you are massively over thinking this. He is only 2, how can you possibly tell which hand he will choose to write with when he is older. As far as kicking a ball to him goes, there is no guarantee that his hand will match which foot he uses anyway. DS is very definitely right handed, although that only became clear when he learned to write at school, but plays most sports, (golf, squash etc) left handed, and favours his left foot for kicking a ball.

My family growing up was 50/50 lh, including ambidextrous DF.

I am LH and DD2 was the tenth and last grandchild. All the others were RHand I was secretly v that this conformed with the 10? of the general population.

Corrie-fisted geek me

floating free yes, I was gutted that my DC turned out to be righties too.

OK, I'll admit it, I may have passed crayons to their left hands when no one was looking to see if they would swap. They did. (You don't think they'll grow up to vote tory, do you?)

Seriously though. Why on earth have you out so much thought into your passing technique? Do you have anxiety issues at all?

As regards passing DS a spoon, I'm just relieved if he doesn't stick his face in the cereal bowl and start chomping like a dog.