On being left handed

I suppose I’m ambidextrous, but the only thing I do with my left-hand is write. I use my right hand for everything else, it’s much stronger.

My mother was ambidextrous too. Everyone else in the family is right-handed.

I'm left handed, as is DD2 and one grandchild. I have always had extreme difficulties with can openers and scissors. I can only use a potato peeler that swivels so you can use either hand. When I taught primary aged children I often noticed arguments when a left handed child sat next to a right handed one so their elbows nudged each other. Swopping places solved the problem.

My eldest is left handed. Extremely intelligent far more so than the rest of the family. Very fast reflexes too, for catching things. Don't know if it's connected with being left handed.....

Menopauselbitch

I’m not left handed but I read that left handed people are better at sport, something to do with reaction time to the brain.

Not me- or my two lefted-handed children! My right handed grandson, however, is very sporty. Enough with the labelling.

everyone has trouble getting 'wet wipes' out of the pack don't they? not a left handed thing! I of course am right handed!

MrsQuigley

I’m left handed. Find it character building more than anything else. Everything is designed for the majority, we just have to find a work-around. Even my hand-held GTech vacuum is now handist. The lights showing how much battery charge is remaining is on the wrong side and cannot be seen when vacuuming. Trying to get a wet-wipe out of the packet is another trial. Recently tried putting spacers on a new hover mower. No way could I get the blade screw untightened with my left hand. Easy with my right and yet that hand is the weaker one. I know that left handlers are supposed to be exceptionally bright, sadly that bit passed me by.

I just needed to get a wet wipe out of the package and tried it with my right hand. Only 1! Usually I get a clump when I use my left.

I am left handed, but it has never been an issue.

Well I ‘m not. Utterly hopeless at sport, and therefore never liked it.

I’m not left handed but I read that left handed people are better at sport, something to do with reaction time to the brain.

I had trouble learning to write and still smudge particularly if the paper is shiny such as a birthday card. My Mum had to turn knitting and sewing upside down in order to teach me. And I can't sit on the right of a right-handed person if we are both using chopsticks!

It strikes me that tying the left handed child's hand behind their back is child abuse. Luckily this did not happen to my left handed mother (born 1920) or my younger daughter (born 1977) but my mother in law (another leftie) who was born in 1917 was forced to use her right hand even though her right side was weakened by polio. Her daughter is also left handed as are many of her numerous nieces and nephews although my husband is right handed, as am I.

I'm left-handed and so is eldest DGS. My grandad tried to get me to write with my right hand and was told in no uncertain terms not to. At secondary school our PE teacher singled 2 lefties out when teaching tennis and told us she'd get to us later. She never did. I used to work for the local council, visiting older people, doing benefit checks and completing forms. Once one person remarked on me being left handed at almost every other visit for the rest of that week someone would also notice. It's never made much difference to me and I rarely think about it. I was interested in your mark about wet wipes MrsQuigley. I can rarely pull just one out and just thought it was the way they were packaged!

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

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.

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 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!

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

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 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 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.

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.

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

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

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.