On being left handed

My Father in law was left handed but had his hand tied behind his back. My husband is left handed but because so much wasn't geared up for left handers he is pretty much ambidextrous. As a right hander, I am pretty useless using my left hand.

My late twin was left handed when young ( I’m right handed) . Writing left handed was discouraged at school, so she became ambidextrous and could write with either hand. Her hand writing was difficult to read either way, so I wonder if being forced to use her non dominant hand was the reason.

I concur, Margiknot, about the difficulty of reading my right-handed efforts after being punished for using my left hand. The only guy who could reliably read it was Chinese and even he once misread my "After the rain the harvest followed" and typed "After the rain the champagne flowed".

DD2 is left-handed. When, in primary school they began to use ink pens - the head-teacher still favoured those dippy ones even in the eighties - DD obviously smudged quite a bit as our script (way of writing) is right-handed.

When the teacher complained to me about this I pointed out that I had just written a post-graduate dissertation in pencil and nobody minded so why couldn't an eight-year-old left-handed child carry on using a pencil for a bit longer.

They never complained again.

I wrote in pencil (still do rather a lot) because it's less strain and less painful for my right-sided costochondritis. I do a lot of jobs and everyday activities left-handed for the same reason.

I am left handed and always been clumsy and no one could teach me to knit🙈 Scissors has always been a problem!! My sister is left handed too, my mum was and one grandchild is! I cannot do anything with my right hand!!

My DS2 is left handed as was my father.My son is also dyslexic but he is now 53 and this was not recognised at his primary school then, he was called a slow to learn reader and was put into a remedial reading class.Some of his class mates called him a ''spacker'' which is a local word for retarded, resulting in him playing truant from school.He did mirror writing which the teachers told me was common in left handed children.
He was and still is very good at art and model making.He has a photographic memory and only needs to visit a place once to get familiar with it.He has always somehow managed with using right handed things in his own way, it is fascinating watching him manoeuvre scissors for example.
He will never be an avid reader, and his handwriting is terrible because of his dyslexia.
I realised he was going to be left handed from a very early age, he always grabbed objects in his left hand as a baby, and when learning to feed himself, if I put the spoon into his right hand he would transfer it to his left one,

Both my parents were left-handed as am I. I write with my right hand. I am fairly ambidextrous but scissors and can openers fox me.

I remember in my 20s playing darts and I ended up with an audience as I was using both hands.

I am sitting here with a desk top computer and the mouse comfortably on my left side.

I’ll add our daughter and grandson to that impressive list. Both incredibly intelligent.
My husband pointed out when we met that I was probably naturally left handed too, as I wear my wristwatch on my right wrist.

My mother, brother me and some nieces are left handed. We arrange ourselves carefully at the table to avoid injury during soup and pudding courses. . We all use knives and forks normally. Both at school and during my nurse training I was made to feel my left handedness was me being difficult as all equipment was for right handed normals. Apparently when I cut toenails it looks frightening

There is also the left handed hook writing. Knew a boy at school who would scrawl a left handed hook when writing. I can still hear his fountain pen now scratching the paper.

I'm a leftie too!

The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil, played guitar right-handed but were both actually lefties. They played guitar right-handed primarily because their father, Ike, taught them that way to avoid the social stigma and practical difficulties associated with being left-handed during the 1940s and 50s.

One of the many reasons I hated school from 5 to 16 was that we, a few leftie pupils, were regularly shouted at and treated like morons by ''teachers'' who thought only righties had any intelligence. I left as soon as I turned 16 in April of 1981, instead of waiting until September! Didn't bother collecting my stuff from the locker or saying anything to anyone; I just didn't go back!

In Worcester, some years ago, I found a shop that claimed to be for us lefties, with leftie scissors, books, etc. I was excited, went trotting in, and the creepy bloke only had about 2 leftie items, everything else was for righties! I asked why he claims it's all for lefties, and he just smirked, so I walked out and never had anything more to do with him or his equally stupid shop!

Being a leftie and ''bad'' etc. is associated with religion, witchcraft and so on, by the self-righteous righties!

I'm left handed. I knit right handed because I was taught that way - anything that requires both hands you tend to do it the way you were taught. I use my knife and fork the right way - as in how right handed people do!

I often have trouble convincing people that corkscrews are a problem - I have to explain about screwdrivers and tin openers before it seems to dawn on them. (Or show them).

The only problem I had when I was at school was smudging my writing as we used fountain pens, and in the earlier days of ball point pens they tended to be a bit leaky and smudgy.

You get used to some things being a bit awkward and frustrating - scissors, flexes on the wrong side of appliances and equipment etc.

Within our immediate family, two of my four granddaughters are left-handed, one of my OH’s daughters is left-handed and both of his grandsons! Quite a high percentage.

I'm left-handed, but not made to write with my right hand. My father, born 1910, was a "shifted sinistral".
DD, born 1973, is also left-handed. I remember that, soon after she started school, her teacher said to me,"I'm afraid your daughter is left-handed." Well, she had a stellar academic stack-up. Actually.

I am left handed but for some obscure reason I iron with my right. Scissors are always a problem. Do any other left handers share my bug bear with mugs in that the inside motif can only be seen when holding them in your right hand!

My Dad was another of those who had his hand tied behind his back and hit over the knuckles with a ruler if caught using his left hand. He developed a stammer which in later years was told it was probably as a result of those punishments for left handedness. He did have a lovely teacher later on who taught him mechanisms for curing his stammer.

Judy, I am not left handed but had many friends at school that were, and have taught many children who were, too.

Surely you know that you can buy scissors, dressmaking shears, potato peelers, tin openers, and for all I know handsaws as well that are made for left-handed people?

In my schooldays, the left handed had fountain pens with left-handed nibs.

I am left handed, as are both my daughters and my eldest granddaughter. I learnt Calligraphy as part of my Art ‘O’ Level and had to use special left handed nibs. I remember an old friend of my parents saying she had to learn to write & do things at school right handed although she was left handed. But she had left handed gadgets for the kitchen e.g. a tin opener and scissors.
I also use some left handed things & my youngest dd prefers ring bound books to be bound on the top rather than down the side because the binding gets in the way.

I was left handed, but my mother thought this would be a disadvantage (in the 1960s) so “made me” right handed by persuasion/encouragement or whatever means necessary.
I didn’t know this until I was older and being constantly corrected by a teacher for embroidering back to front…
I still do things back to front, but write with my right hand - although I can also write reasonably neatly with my left.
I have a little granddaughter who is left handed, and like me she is artistic and bright 💕 I will buy her some left handed scissors when I see some, and have looked into ways to teach her to knit and crochet when she’s ready.

I've just returned home after a visit to my son and his family. I noticed my GD eating cereal lefthandedly and asked if she was left handed. Her mum said she thought she used both hands for things but sometimes drew with her left hand. If she is ambidextrous I guess that is probably advantageous, but she is still quite young - 3 later this month - so only time will tell.
There are left handed versions of many things these days but maybe not everything you need. A friend of mine who runs one of the craft groups I attend is left handed. She often teaches people crafts and has both left handed and right handed versions of some things such a scissors and pinking shears so people can borrow her equipment. Schools always have both types of scissors for pupils to use and thankfully kids are no longer forced to use their right hand. I think my late FiL was naturally left handed and was forced to be right handed. He developed a stammer which came out if he got stressed or upset and I think it was related.

delighted to know there are lots of fellow 'lefties' out there. I was always told left handed people are more intelligent (well we all know that!) because we live in a right-handed world and therefore have to use both hemispheres of our brain more. Having said that I am very clumsy and have the world's worst hand-writing. I think 3 of my 6 grandchildren are left-handed too.

I write with my left hand but everything else I do right handed. I am ambidextrous a lot of the time too. The first teacher I ever had just for one term back in 1956 made me sit on my left hand but the next teacher was younger and told the whole class to write with whichever hand was the easiest. Five of us swapped.

AuntieE

Judy, I am not left handed but had many friends at school that were, and have taught many children who were, too.

Surely you know that you can buy scissors, dressmaking shears, potato peelers, tin openers, and for all I know handsaws as well that are made for left-handed people?

In my schooldays, the left handed had fountain pens with left-handed nibs.

I'll just pop into my local pound shop then and buy a pair of left handed scissors/peeler/tin opener then, shall I?

No, I don't think I will - I'll have to locate a speciality shop or large expensive store with a massive kitchenware department, pay a fortune and wait for the item to be delivered which will cost me extra.

And left handed nibs don't stop yoiur left arm and elbow rubbing across what you've just written and smudging it.

A classic example of thinking you know more than the people experiencing the issue.

I'm left handed....my 3 children are left handed ....2 of my gc are left handed ....none of us use anything special for left handers ...we just manage with the normal things eg scissors

I'm left handed but was never taught it was wrong at school. My Dad had the cruel bits. Awkward bit at school, were pens of course, smudging your work with the original dip in ones, and not a lot of understanding for that.

I'd say that yes, tho I am not ambidextrous, I have learnt to do a lot on the right so I only recently bought my first leftie thing, good sewing cutting scissors.