On being left handed

I'm lefthanded. At school we had to write in italics with a fountain pen. I had to blot each word as of course my hand would smudge the ink. I was never given extra time. In fact I learned to work harder than the right-handers. As a teenager I won a national writing competition!

Eating cake recently, my friend praised the smart pastry forks we were using. “They’re nice to use”, she said. “Not if you are left handed”, I replied!
I’m mainly a left hander although I crochet and knit right handed. I sew left handed. My left handed writing is not very elegant but is legible. I was told off at school for writing left-handed but not made to write with the other hand.
Left handed gadgets are easy to buy on line. During covid lockdowns, I bought a pair of left-handed hair scissors so that I could cut my own and DH’s hair. They are incredibly sharp and effective.
Sometimes, I don’t know which hand to use.

I am left handed and went to primary school in the 1950’s,was no problem,surprisingly really as the teachers were cruel.

My first husband was left handed as are both our daughters, 4 of our 6 grandchildren and our little great granddaughter, only only just turned 1 is showing a preference to using her left hand. I remember my mother-in-law telling me she was forced to use her right hand by having her left hand tied behind her back to stop her from using it - her writing was atrocious...

I can empathise now. DH has had a stroke and only has use of his non dominant left hand. I have just had two joints replaced on my right wrist which is now encased in a splint, so can only use my left hand too. What I cannot find is a combined knife, fork and spoon where the serrated edge is on the left hand side of the implement for cutting. What eating tools would help us?

I’m left-handed, as is our daughter. Everyone else in the family is right-handed, as far as I know. I taught myself to crochet right-handed, just by manoeuvring my left hand more than my right. It was easier than reversing the patterns.
I also learnt to play hockey right-handed at school, because there were no left-handed sticks! I later learnt to play golf right-handed too, although I suspect I could hit harder with my left.
Gadgets which annoy me include the microwave oven, which opens on the right with controls also on that side! Do left-handed ones exist?! 🤔
Also scissors, tin openers and anything with labels on the right side (e.g. right-handed pics on mugs!). Irons are better than they used to be with central flexes (I don’t use one much anyway!🤣).
Kettles with the water level on the right side only!
I could go further with the problems connected with being only 5’ tall, but I’d be here all night!🙄

It might not be a problem getting a job now but my poor dad was refused jobs because of being left handed He was another who had his hand tied behind his back at school, he was was a very bright man, who was suited to office work, very quick with figures, he was never able to work in an office, he was always refused. He worked all his life in warehouses, shops, factories but never reached his potential
He had beautiful handwriting.

another one here who had their knuckles rapped at school for being left handed. I would dearly love to have beautiful writing but unfortunately not, I believe constantly being made to change hands being the reason.
I do more delicate coordination with my left, sewing, writing and texting etc. But anything that requires power I.e. tennis, heavy lifting etc is with my right. .

I’m left handed. Can’t use L.handed scissors. I write same as a right hander - no curving my hand above the writing. I taught myself to knit right handed in junior school then forgot. When I started knitting for my children I used to reverse the instructions because I was left handed when I didn’t need to. All that unnecessary struggling!
Bread knives, knives, saws all drift off when I use them as they’re only sharpened on the one side. Oh and upside down tape measures are another nuisance.
I’ve heard that the early cavemen were all left handed they can tell by the slant. So we were here first.

My grandson is left handed and as a child found writing difficult but on the other hand he shone at art, acting and creative thinking. When he left school he worked at acting.film making etc.He is now a producer and head of creative ideas for a large digital firm.His brother is right handed and although he could produce really good paintings they lacked the spontaneous and loose quality of my left handed dgs. He went to university and works in finance. There is a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain which explains a lot of this. Also why engaging in artistic activities is relaxing even though hard work.kk

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Left handers are also very artistic.

Have you ever noticed how many actors are left-handed? You see them all the time when they're supposed to be writing or signing something in a film or drama.

I always notice because my father was left-handed as is my sister and one of my sons.
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My left handed daughter recently discovered there was such a thing as a left handed pencil sharpener!!
She has other gadgets but says this is the best!

My grandmother was another who was forced to write with her right hand and my cousin is left handed. I am extremely mixed handed/ambidextrous. I write with my right hand but do a lot of things with my left - including typing this on my phone! Ball games were always left handed, which made playing hockey a lot harder and l remember a midwife watching me feed my baby with a bottle and asking me if I was left handed. As a small child, l was late to make up my mind which hand to write with and, in the words of my mother, "of course we encouraged the right hand." This would have been very much approved by the school. In common with Smintie, this thinking was still very in the sixties. Thank goodness ideas have changed since then. The result was that I found writing and drawing very difficult and uncomfortable for years. I learnt to read, spell and do maths very quickly but writing was another matter altogether. I think that if I had been allowed a little longer, I would almost certainly have chosen to write with my left hand and learnt much more quickly and naturally. Still, ambidextrousness is very useful as a musician.

Agree with artistic- my left-handed son is very artistic , but I wouldn’t say my LH father or LH GS are,

Seems to be quite a lot who are left handed or know of someone.
I now find it difficult to keep to a straight line but since my mid twenties I cannot see on my left side unless I turn my head

SpinDriftCoastal

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.

My left handed son does this.

I had an aunt who was forced to write right handed, she had trouble spelling. I am left handed but use a knife and fork right handed and also knit.
The most difficult thing I find is to work out which way to go when people are walking towards me and a similar problem with kissing someone as a greeting I inevitably go the wrong way. My DS is left handed as is my DB.

I grew up sure that I was left-handed, though I was perfectly able to use scissors in my right hand, to eat with my knife and fork the 'normal' way around and to knit the same way as my right-handed mother taught me. But almost everything else I did exclusively with my left hand.

Then as a young adult I discovered when decorating that I could happily swap the paint brush from one hand to the other when painting window frames, which made the task a lot easier.

Roll on another few years, and playing bat/racket sports for the first time in many years, I found that it now felt natural to play with my right hand, not my left as I always had when I was younger.

I still can't write or draw well with my right hand - not that I am very good at doing them with my left - but I seriously wonder if I was meant to be rjght-handed all along!!!

The most likely explanation I can come up with is that seriously injuring my right elbow as a toddler, which meant it was in plaster and then a sling for many months (and apparently I simply wouldn't use it for several more months even after those were removed) affected my development. But my mum insists that I had shown signs of being left handed before the accident, so who knows.
Maybe I am just odd!

I'm a leftie and when I started school I could never understand why I had ink all over my hand after writing and no-one else did. Also, we had those little plastic safety scissors and I always thought mine were blunt when actually my left hand was forcing the blades apart.

I played cricket and rounders with my right hand and couldn't get the hang of hockey because the stick felt as if it was the wrong way round. I've tried crazy golf both ways but still feel awkward.

Later on, I had a left handed cheque book which saved a lot of bother as the stubs were on the right side.

I didn't have those difficulties, and its an interesting post MollyNew, it makes me wonder if there are sort of degrees of left-handedness?

Maybe there are degrees Wyllow3. My dad was left handed and he had to teach me to tie my shoelaces because when my right handed mother taught me, they were lengthways down my foot!

I have learned to conform over the years. I used a right handed mouse at work whereas some leftie colleagues had a left handed one which I tried but didn't like at all.

I do not feel so alone now thanks to others on here! When I started school & was told we were to learn how to write I picked up the pencil left handed. Immediately was hit with the ruler across my left hand. I could not understand why as my parents had taught me to write before I went to school & I had always been left handed! The ruler was too much to put up with at 4 years old so I had to learn to write right handed. Until arthritis took over my left hand I could also write left handed with no one to tell me now at 81 that I am using the wrong hand. I have always been ambidexterous!

I am the only one in my family who is a "Leftie". The teachers at school tried to get me to write right-handed but I didn't. "Anything Left Handed" is a shop in London. They sell scissors, rulers, can openers, knives ,fountain pens and more. I knit and crochet left-handed. My GD sat opposite me so I could teach her.

I am left handed too. After years of smudged writing I bought a left handed fountain pen but to be honest it didn't make any difference. My mother taught me to knit but she had to cast on for me and I knitted from right to left. However when I got to junior school the sewing teacher became exasperated with me when I dropped a stitch as she couldn't help me so I had to learn to knit like a right handed person. It was the same with sewing and now I interchange hands when doing so. I hold my knife and fork right handed but use a spoon in my left hand. When paining (DIY) I use both hands. Tennis racket in my right hand, I kick a ball with my right foot and I use right handed scissors. My older sister also a leftie has left handed scissors but I simply cannot use them. I use a mouse in my right hand and type very badly with both. My youngest son is a leftie and he kind of holds his pen , pencil and sort of writes upside down which looks very awkward. My husband who worked with computers can use two screens and a mouse in each hand. He is normally right handed.

B9exchange I have found this. It may be useful
www.abilitysuperstore.com/products/etac-light-combination-cutlery