should i allow dd to be left-handed or try coax her into being right-handed

[hazlinh]

i've always had a hunch that dd, now 2, is left-handed. she has shown left hand tendencies since she was born. and is now quite strongly left-handed but the nanny and my mother, who mainly take care of her, didn't seem to think anything about it and have been trying to make her use her right hand for eating and stuff. I think they just think she's too young to realise the difference between her right and left hand, iykwim.
anyway i'm getting quite concerned about this, because i am beginning to think that i should just tell the nanny to get off her case and let her develop the use of her left hand naturally. but how does one know if she really is left-handed?? and i am worried about any future problems, because i have absolutely no experience of lefthandedness and no one in the family is lefthanded so we wouldnt know how to start dealing with it..and where i am, (in asia) i dont think it's easy to find leftie scissors and things...
basically, does anyone have any advice for me? anyone been through this before??help..

I think you should tell nanny and mother to eat with their left hands. And if they don't like it, maybe they should reconsider their approach to your child. What eaxctly is the problem with being left-handed?

My dad is left handed. No one elsein the whole family is left-handed. I didn't think it was hereditary, just a fluke.

I'm curious though, even if you do restrict a child favoured hand/arm will they actually change to the other one? Is this technique even successful.

Have to agree they need to get out of the dark ages.

i'm a proud paper-swiveler!! should that have two 'l's?

hazlinh - i really do feel sorry for you - caught between a rock and a hard place! all i can say is stand your ground, she's your baby and you know what's best for her x

There is actually a good reason behind the left hand issue in some cultures which maybe some people have missed. If you live in a country without toilet roll you use your left hand and water to wipe your bottom with. No hot water and soap then leads to the sensible practise of eating with your right hand.
I still think that Hazlinh's DD should be left to develop naturally but just wanted to point out that it is not such a crazy idea to encourage right handedness! Maybe we used to have the same reasoning in the past but no excuse for the 'tying behind back' etc in the 70's.
My DD is just two and hasn't decided which hand to go for yet she favours different ones on different days!

EEEEeeeewwwwwwww....

I'm going to take a wils stab here and guess that someone who employees a nanny can afford toilet paper.

Oh yuck....

Right gave up reading all the posts about half way though, but here are some thoughts from another leftie;

Let her turn her writing paper when she writes so that she is writing towards her body but at an angle. This is a much more comfortable way to write for a left-hander and she wont rub her hand over her work and ruin it/make a mess.

Always found it more useful to computer mouse right handed, that way you can use the computer and take manual notes at the same time.

Surly the most usual way to hold a knife and fork is fork left, knife right! I have encountered more problems with RH kids using their right hand to fork up food as toddlers and then being reluctant to switch when a knife is introduced - so being LH is an advantage when learning to eat.

I personally have never used LH sissors, just developed a natural technique of moving the paper rather than the sissors.

There are lots of things already mentioned where being left handed is an advantage - I (a very un-sporty teen) discovered that I was nigh on unbeatable at fencing (grin). There are some things where it is easier to go with the flow and be right handed, and some things where you have to learn them RH (played polo at uni - have to do it RH cos it would be dangerous otherwise).

Being LH is no disadvantage in life, tell nanny and mother to butt out.

On of my Dad's favourite sayings (had it on a coffe mug):

If the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, the left handed people are the only one in their right minds.

thanks everyone!
have firmly told off the nanny and said that she must let dd use whichever hand she likes!!had to remind her twice today in fact..she still hasn't quite undersootd why exactly but i think she got the message.
having said that..dd promptly used her right hand to eat !!mayhap she is ambidextrous...

oh yes another note to add to my defence.

i DID ask how one knows whether your dd/ds truly is left-handed or just not sure which hand to use. i just wasn't sure whether to butt in on the nanny's persistence or just see how it all panned out.

my lack of confidence (in general AND as a mother) was letting me down...
No More!!!

Hazlinh - good for you !

Apparently I used to use my left hand for everything, but I am firmly right handed now

good for you - go girl! . children aren't firmly left or right-handed until about 5 years old, so anything could happen. some chop and change a few times until they learn to write, others are firmly l/r handed from the start, you can never tell!

You are joking with this thread right!

Is she's left handed she's left handed and whatever you do or say will not change it but will change her perception of what being left handed means. I thought this kind of thing went out with the dark ages.

Agree MaryP re dark ages comment!!

Haz becareful your nanny might have you on tiral as a witch next!

I'm glad you've sorted her out though...

I'm sorry I am really angry about this. A childcare professional would not under any circumstances do this and would suggest your nanny needs a refesher course and go and look at her child development books.

My mother had this done to her and she has terrible problems with writing even now.

i'm left handed and the only "special" things i ever needed were scissorts and a left handed fountain pen cos thats wot we had to use at school. however most schools allow biro so this isn't really a problem. i can use a lot of "normal" scissors but some won't work with me for some reason. however even though left handedness makes me different to people which i always liked it is a pain cos my writing is really messy and if you don't have a pen where the ink dries quickly you do tend to smudge it and make rather a mess. also i have always blamed by bad co-ordination to being left handed and i used to hate it in games when i had to be showed specially the right way to do things. i think if i could have been made to be right handed i would have preferred that but i don't know if you can change it when its probably genetically determined.

I'm a fencer, love my sport. Left handers are generally better fighters

just remembered although it has never affected me, left handed rulers are sometimes helpful. and also i found left handed ringbinders and spiral notebooks a god send (and now cheque books but that's not really important for a child!!)