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?

My dd 16 is lefthanded and writes better than me she also was goal shooter on her school netball team shes not being disadvantaged

Forcing, or "encouraging" right handedness, can cause all sorts of physiological damage and is linked to stammering,

leave you child be, my little girl is definitely left handed and its not an issue.

Please stop what you are doing yabu

Senua I did that.

My leftie used both for a while and sometimes right handed kids will pickup a crayon with their left. I wanted to know out of interest.

I send to correct pen grip too(discouraged fist grip)- send for social services now!!

FloatingFree, come come that's not fair! Someone else got there before me.

YES WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS!!!!!

Op, I'm sorry you feel that way. However, you asked in AIBU. And seemed to favour your ds being right handed.

Post this in behaviour and development and ask it in a more open way and you won't not have had the "kicking"

The advice is out there, just know where and how to ask. and for you

OP, are you so obsessed and controlling about other aspects of your sons development?

You sound like you have way too much time on your hands.

Obsessed and controlling- get real!

Just think a little before you post HumOlive, eh?

It's clear the OP overthinks though. And being concerned a two year won't play properly with crayons does suggest a certain degree of clenching.

Lol Hester. Shall I grace you with a "I'm not!" response?

I think the response on here has been justified, and I don't think the OP really gets at all why she's had that response. It was statements like this I do most of it without thinking as I thought about it in advance and this 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. which made me twitchy. I'm sorry but to be so pre-meditated with such a small child sounds bonkers. Am guessing PFBitis responsible in part.

Just in case you're still here OP, the instrument aspect is pretty irrelevant. If you look at people who don't play, for example, the clarinet, miming it, they without fail put their hands the wrong way round (ie right hand at the top). There are not that many instruments that are ergonomically practical, as most of them were designed so long ago.

If you look at a guitar anyway, surely it would make sense for a right hander to be using their right hand to do all the difficult bit ie on the frets, but it's the other way round.

I too think you're overthinking the passing and kicking thing. It sounds like you do loads with him and that's great, just relax a bit!

Another Interesting Fact - if you go with the musical instrument thing, and your child perchance turns out to be a genius, then being left handed with give his piano playing a thumping great left hand and bass sections will sound terrific I learned this from Jilly Cooper

Only read the OP because that's all I needed to read. I was a natural with both hands, and forced to write with my right.

Never truly forgiven family or school, and I have a weird lump on my ring finger to show it wasn't natural. Even only writing right handed now, I cannot hold a pen/pencil like others so I have a lump and it causes me great physical pain if I have to write more than a paragraph in a rush.

And look at Rafa Nadal.

And Goran Ivanisevic.

See, it's not all bad!

Is OP a troll? Or just really controlling?

It's not a disability. He may turn out to be left or right handed and he'll do just fine.

Yes, I would say YABU.
Surely IF things are more difficult for left handed people, this is a problem with the environment and not the handedness of the individual.
As I teenager I wanted to be left handed as all the left handed people I knew were creative and cool :) I don't have a creative bone in my body!

This thread is sad, cannot actually believe that there are people in the world trying to change something genetically programmed and not at all wrong in their children.

I'm left handed and play the guitar. I've also managed to get a degree (some of my exams were handwritten! With my own good-for-nothing left hand!) and a decent job. My husband and I also sell handmade and hand painted one off items of furniture on etsy. And they actually sell!

The only problem I've had with my supposed problematic choice of hand, is the amount of annoying people who say "Oh my god are you left handed? I never knew!".

Well no, you wouldn't. Because it doesn't matter.

The musical instrument thing is no excuse either. I've known a number of left-handed guitarists. Most of them play right handed no problem and a couple bought/built left handed guitars to play when they felt like it.

See, you can even build guitars left handed! Hands are good like that!

It can also be an advantage in martial arts.

I can't believe I'm seeing this post - in 2013!! OP as you & relatives have so much to think and say on this subject,I'm guessing its a (seriously wrong & so outdated) cultural thing that I know well still prevails today.

Myself and older DB are both lefthanded. Its not exactly stunted our lives, I can assure you.

Volleyball is difficult as a left hander, I just could not get how to serve the ball with my left hand and get it into the right side of the court. But- I have managed to live a fulfilling life without being a champion volley ball player (as has just about everyone I know, left or right handers!!) It seriously is not a big deal, OP.

I am a 50-year old left-hander and am horrified to think that in this day and age people still think there is something "wrong" or inferior with being left-handed! Your son will be whatever he will be and handing him things into his right hand because you think this will somehow encourage him to favour his right hand is deluded! One of my clearest memories form childhood is still sitting in my aunt's house aged about 3 and her encouraging me to use a pencil in my right hand. My normally mild-mannered mother was outraged when she found out, particularly as my aunt was a nurse and my mum felt she should have known better.

You do sound quite controlling OP, teaching your child the right way to use craft materials. He is 2, if he wants only to eat the play dough then that IS the right use of it! Carry on telling him to change colours, stick things down properly and you will end up with a child who won't express himself creatively in any field for fear of getting it wrong!

how odd! im left handed and have honestly never had an problem using anything not even scissors, dont see why you would kick to his right side either to encourage right handedness, im left handed but right footed, i also use my right hand for my knife, all very natural to me!

also i thougt my eldest was left handed then by about 5 he had switched and at 7 is still righthanded

LittleBearPad

Like you I use my mouse in my left hand, unlike you I swap the buttons over. This doesn't stop me using a mouse in my right hand though, I think left handed people are if anything more adaptable as we have to live in a still predominantly right handed world. Likewise, I love my left handed scissors with the blades reversed and my Stabilio pens but I am perfectly capable of using right hand ones if I need to (in my left hand).

The only thing my Mum thought was a good idea was to teach my brother and I to use our knife and fork the right handed way but although I did, my brother always used to lay the table left handed and couldn't see why it was different and yet he is 'less' left handed than me for tasks although he is a 'hook' writer whereas I am not.

Both my parents had left handed people in their families (my Mum's paternal grandmother had her left hand tied down but it didn't stop her being left handed - as I understand it, she was very stubbon and refused to give in!) My Mum is right handed but uses her left hand for some tasks and my Dad is completely ambidextrous, happy to write and use tools in either hand depending on the situation. I don't have any children but my brother's two are both right handed even though their mum is left handed. It seems like there is no 'one size fits all' left or right handed person!

I think all these variations show how complicated the whole issue is and children should be left to choose their own way when they are ready.

ignorant confession

I thought left handed scissors were a myth