Left handed or not left handed? That is the question ....

[Ghosty]

Here's quite an interesting one for you ...
My DS (4 in November) had, up until recently, been showing that he was right handed ... favouring his right hand when eating, drawing, painting, hammering etc etc.
I am right handed but DH is a bit strange (no surprises there ... ). DH does everything one handed with his right hand - writing, holding his knife, playing tennis. But is left handed with everything he does two handed ... so he plays cricket and golf left handed.
Anyway ... DH was playing golf in the garden with DS and noticed that with his plastic golf clubs DS seems to be taking after his dad and is favouring his left hand with the golf club and with his little cricket bat.
So ... what to do? Is it possible that he genuinely is like his daddy? Or is he still too young to tell and is he just getting it confused? Should we encourage the left handed thing when he does these games and continue encouraging his right hand in other stuff? Should we just wait and see?
The thing is that DH is a huge golf and cricket fan and is itching to teach DS ... and now is delighted that DS seems to be like him and so teaching him will be easier ... so does he actively 'teach' him the left handed way?
Oh dear ... I don't think I am expressing myself very well here.
I am not at all worried or bothered if DS does turn out to be left handed or a bit of both like DH ... I just want to know the best way to take it so as not to confuse DS and not have some teacher in the future say that we have made him cack handed or anything ... I mean do I start to encourage him to use his left hand at other things too or do I just leave the right handedness as it is.
Or should I not be bothering about this and should I just see what happens??
FWIW ... he is really very good at the left handed golf/cricket .... (DH has visions of being the father of the next Tiger Woods/Ian Botham!) so he does actually look quite comfortable ....
What a ramble ... if anyone is able to unravel this badly written post I would be grateful for any advice/ideas/suggestions ....
Cheers ...

I wouldn't worry, I'm right handed and my mum is left handed. I eat like a left handed person because it was my mum who taught me how to use cultlery. So your DH is probably just teaching your DS how he does it even if he is right handed. I don't think that it has to be confusing, just leave him to it and he'll figure out which hand is best for what.

I think that its good to learn to do somethings with you unfavoured hand...DH is right handed and can't do ANYTHING with his left hand its really funny.

I've sometimes notice DS1 doing things with both/differnet hands and haven't tried to encourage or discourage(strong words I know, but you know what I mean) either.
DH sometimes tries to make him change hands to do it the 'right' way but I think whichever way is comfortable for him and as long as he gets done what he wants to do it doesn't and shouldn't really matter.
My dad was ambidextrous (able to use both hands, but spelling is ?) and he never had any problems. Infact I was always fasinated but his handwriting as with left hand it was lovely rolling letters/words and his right was a messy scrall yet he always wrote with his messy right hand.

Hi Ghosty, Difficult one. DS (almost 2) seems to favour RH but does swap to LH with some toys almost as though he's experimenting. The only exception to this is a pencil which he always picks up in RH. DH is left handed for writing, ambidextrous with all tools but eats RH. His mother says he experimented a lot before finally making a choice to write LH when he was around 4. But having experimented as a child he can write with RH if he wants. I would say let your laddie practise both. Explain that there are two ways to do it and let him choose. My poor father was naturally LH but went to school at a time when that was not considered "correct" so was forced to write with RH and made to go up to the teacher after every letter he wrote. He turned out to have beautiful writing but even so he always seemed to have to "think" before putting pen to paper. Don't worry if your DS wants to copy daddy; he'll soon discover that it's easier the other way round IYSWIM.

I'm right handed but when I did an archery course I had to shoot left handed because my left eye was dominant. I do, however, play crazy golf right handed so it may be a red herring!

Chances are your DS is simply copying Daddy. I wouldn't worry about it as it certainly won't hinder him. Very interesting though!

To fond out whether he is right or left eyed give him an empty toilet roll to look through. He'll look through the dominant eye

Handedness doesn't always settle for a while anyway- when asking about ds1 (who's 4) none of the developmental bods have been really interested as they say he may to be too young to settle.

DH is left handed (but not for cricket) and right footed. Roll a ball to your ds - which foot does he kick with?

It is "better" if they are all one thing- so if he's right footed and right eyed then I would assume he is right handed.

I wouldn't worry about it. Our DD is the weird one in our house, being a RH'er when DH and I are both lefties.

Just let him develop at his own pace and see what preferences he has later.

FWIW, I eat 'right-handed' unless I'm only using a fork or a spoon (or spoon and fork together) when I use my LH; I have a problem carving or cutting bread cos I do it with either hand and neither feels right; I count money in the traditional banking way right-handed (worked in a bank); play hockey right-handed, tennis left-handed, golf (well, mini or pitch and putt!) I'm confused and don't play often enough to establish dominance, either hand seems fine; knit right-handed, sew LH. I guess I've always just found my own comfort level wherever possible.

Generally though I am a left-handed person who has adapted to life in a right-handed world.

I wouldn't encourage or discourage either hand. My ds is 5 1/2 and is predominantely LH, although will sometimes choose to use his RH for some things (even writing) with not much difference in performance. When I realised that he was not clearly RH I started just offering things to him centrally, so as to give him full opportunity to choose for himself which hand to use to pick something up.

I believe current advice is that you should allow a child to use whichever hand feels right to them for a task, but that if they can't make up their minds then gentle encouragement to use the RH is advised - because so many of our tools are designed for RH people that if they have no definate preference then RH is more convenient.

My dad has always been right handed but plays golf left handed! weird but it woks for him

Ghosty, it's really useful for a cricketer to bat lefthanded because it messes up the opposition's bowling/fielding so if he's comfortable with that definitely encourage it! For football it's most useful to be good with both feet. Not sure about golf - do you have to get special clubs?

Like others on here I do some things one way and some things another, writing is easier right-handed (LH tends to smudge) and so is using scissors but for most things it doesn't make that much difference.

A test for handedness I have heard of - don't know how accurate it is - is to put your hands together with fingers alternating (like "here's the church" and see which thumb is on top. Mine comes out L although I am right-handed - I can put them together the other way but have to think about it!

winky not intended!

left handed site with tests!

You do get left hand golf clubs - my dad has some but he RH - i am the only true leftie in our family but have taught my self RH ways to help kids e.g tying laces -kids were confused as i did it different from daddy!who is RH.
however i feel it is good if you can do some things with either hand

janh, I answered Right for 8 out of 10 of those questions and yet consider myself left-handed!

Like the test - 6 - 4 to the right so we're all a bit mixed up. I'm left eyed (so would have great trouble shooting, too bad) I whisk and hold cards left handed. I guess your son will find his own way

Wierd.....I answer 9/10 as a lefthander but have always thought myself a righthander.

I'm like Pie with the use of cutlery thing. Both of my parents are left handed so I grew up in a left handed household but I am right handed. I eat left handed because that was how my mum used to set the table and I suppose I must have learned by watching how she ate.

My StepDS1 is left handed and has no problems due to being 'allowed' to do things his way (ie with the hand he felt most comfortable using). I personally wouldn't do the 'encouraging' thing, as I would assume that your DS will just use the hand that feels best for him naturally. When my Mum was little always being told to use her right hand, school would take her pen from her and out in the other hand etc, to me that seems a little cruel, as if being left handed is some sort of problem. My mum still feels very strongly about this to this day.

Incidentally my 13 m.o. DD shows signs of left-handedness (her left hand seems more dominant - she takes things off me with her LH and holds her toothbrush with her LH. If she does turn out to be a 'left-hander' then I will not be persuading her to use her right hand.

BTW, I got 9/10 righthanded in that little quiz thingy.

I'm like SueW in that I'm left handed, but "eat" with my cutlery the "normal" way, unless I'm just using a spoon or a knife, in which case I use my left hand. It means I have difficulty with desserts that need a fork and a spoon, as I don't know how to hold a fork in my right hand.

Dh is also left handed, but does use his cutlery "left handed" - and gets upset when family forget to set his dinner place "correctly" - ie mirror image.

Interestingly, I am right eyed, and dh is left eyed (as in which eye is dominant).

We both play golf right handed - although dh can also play left handed.

When I used to clay pigeon shoot, I shot "right handed" - because my right eye is dominant.

My mum is also left handed - and like me is right eyed.

Ds (3 on Wednesday) is showing every sign of being right handed, which is a bit unfortunate in a left handed house! He does nothing with his left hand, despite us looking for hopeful signs - not that we would push him either way of course!

Just stay relaxed Ghosty and don't push him either way - he will decide for himself which feels best.

I was 5 left & 5 right. Dominant eye was Left eye.

I eat right handed & write with my right hand.
But when it comes to sport I throw with my left (I am rubbish with right) adn can play raquet sports equally well with either hand.

so I guess it is correct that I am equal right & left, though I wouldn't say I am truly ambidextrous.

Have to admit I can write quite neatly left handed. & my mum thought I was going to be left handed so much so that she made my primary school teachers aware & found out ways to encourage this,and make it easier, but when it came to it I learnt right handed.

8/10 left handed for me, which is stronger than I thought, considering I play all sport right handed....me and dh are both lefties, anyone know what the chances of our children being left handed are?

Thanks for all the input everyone. I certainly have no intention making DS be right handed if he favours his left but I just wondered how common it was to do some things with your left and some things with your right like DH ... and it is obvious from the posts that DH is not as odd as I thought he was ! My SIL (DH's sister) is a true leftie so I guess there must be something in the genes ... as my family are totally right handed as far as I know ...
Those tests were good Janh ... thanks for that ... I scored 3 for left and 7 for right ...
But I must have some leftie in me because I could do the hands tests really easily and the triangle one no probs ...
BTW ... just remembered a little tip for leftie children at school from when I was teaching. If your child is a left hander encourage them to sit to the left of neighbour ... especially if the neighbour is right handed ... that way it stops the two jogging eachother (a very frustrating thing for kids when they are doing work 'in best' ...

I write with my left-hand, although I clean my teeth and brush my hair with my right-hand. I eat as a Right-hander, although DH gets very edgy when I'm using sharp knives as he says I look "cack-handed". I struggle with our can-opener as it's right-handed - fortunately most things are ring-pulls now or DD1 opens cans for me.

I play tennis right-handed, although when at school I used to throw discus/shot-puts with my left-hand. I kick a ball right-footed although I hop on my left foot.

When I was at school, I was sat next to another left-hander so that we didn't keep knocking into each other when we were writing.

None of my children are left-handed.

I read somewhere (don't know where - it might even have been on Mumsnet) that both parents being left handed meant that the chance of children being left handed was one in three - ie still more likely to be right handed, but with a stronger probability of being left handed than the "norm" - which is about one in eleven (although I think even that is changing, as more left handers come out the woodwork after years of suppression! )

Unbeleivable - I scored 5 left and 5 right, even though I am so right-handed as to be laughable (according to pie) - must learn to be more confident of my left hand.