Left Handers, any d...
 

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[Closed] Left Handers, any difficulties?

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So it looks like my lad, who’s 3 the end of Sept, is a leftie.

This is great when he’s got a ball at his feet…. he’s got a sweat left foot and I’ve got him shouting Bale when he scores… but already he has to use his little plastic golf club upside down and I know he’s going to be limited with guitar choices, but then again I’ve got a feeling he’s more of a drummer… do they make left handed drum kits ??

Sorry bad jokes aside… I know there are no obvious disadvantages and it not something I’m worried about at all…. but I was wondering what difficulties might he face and is there anything we can or should do to help.

Lefties, how might your life have been made easier as a child ?

or

What have you done to promote your left handed child progress.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:11 pm
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I like being left handed, just to be a bit different, must admit to slight disappointment that none of my 3 daughters are 🙁 Only problem I have is I have to be careful with some pens if they have wet or gel ink as a left hander smudges their writing with their hand as they go across the page, as a positive knifes and forks are on the natural side for us lefties!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:17 pm
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[img] [/img]

?


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:18 pm
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I am a leftie - scissors are an obvious problem ~ I learned to use right handed ones as they were the only ones seemingly available but lefty ones are in schools now


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:18 pm
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When I was his age (ish), I couldnt make up my mind which hand to write with, so my dad decided I would be right handed.

I do everything else left handed/footed instinctively and my handriting is truly awful. Were doctors to see it, they would laugh at how bad it is. My point is, don't force anything right handed on him. Unless you want him to be the next Jimi Hendrix 😕

I'm pretty sure everything made for right handed folk can be made left handed? Apart from screwdrivers, for obvious reasons.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:18 pm
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Scissors are the biggest thing. Make sure he has some left handed ones


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:20 pm
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Kevin has got out of the ironing for the last 22 years because we dont have a left handed iron


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:22 pm
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One of my sons is a leftie.
More understanding teachers would have helped when he started school,some of them were beyond belief . 🙄


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:23 pm
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To add balance I'm a left hander but kick a ball with my right foot,cut paper with my right hand ( well use scissors anyway my fingers are not that sharp )
There was a real stigma in the early 70s (born 67) at school and teachers would snatch the pen out of your left hand and put it in your right one, this may have lead me to be semi ambidextrous although my writing is shite with my right hand still, but probably is where the other right handed stuff came from.
I cannot kick a ball with my left foot for toffee so I'm a bit ****ed up really

Edit - Tracey the ironing board is the only thing that drives me crackers,if its set up for right handlers I am knackered and have to turn it round which then winds the missus up


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:25 pm
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You might find he's ambidextrous.
I am (mainly for sports) and it is quite handy..and, as my various team mates would say, a little weird. Especially cricket: Bat left handed, bowl/throw right. Golf: Driver/irons left, putter right.
I started playing golf right handed because my dad thought I was right handed. It wasn't until I turned his 6 iron upside down and hit it further than he did that made him realise I was a lefty..


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:25 pm
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pita tbh 😐


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:26 pm
 JoB
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never been an issue, was given left-handed scissors, ruler etc as a kid but couldn't use them as i was so used to using RH ones

the only problems are smudging ink when writing, but no-one writes any more, and left-handed cheque books would have been nice but they're obsolete as well


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:28 pm
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Ye - I'm a leftie.

I'd actually disagree with the scissors thing - the reason why is as goes through life he isn't always going to have his 'special' scissors to hand, and will need to make do with whatever is around.

personally I'd refuse to use any 'special' left-handed stuff as I don't see the need, I'm not disabled so don't want any 'special' stuff. I now naturally pick up scissors and use them with my right hand.
I can happily swap cutlery from hand to hand part way through a meal, and will pick up a cup with whatever hand is nearest. (it used to drive my mum mad when I was a kid as if she asked me to lay the table for dinner I'd put everything on the wrong sides)

I suggest you just pass him things and let him choose which hand to pick things up with...

He'll be fine - just encourage him to do whatever feels right.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:29 pm
 JPR
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+1 on not bothering with left handed scissors.

Only issue I had was smudging writing, both with a pen or pencil. Ended up using 2H pencils as they were slightly harder and tended to smudge far less.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:35 pm
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As a leftie, even the writing thing/smudging is avoidable with the paper angled more steeply.

One thing they may struggle with early on in school life is tying shoelaces and school ties (if they still wear them) as you tend to get show in a way that suits right handers better.

As picked up on above, learning to cut right handed (with scissors) is a useful skill, using them left handed leaves rubbish fuzzy edges with school scissors on paper.

Finally, with some sports it's easier to obtain equipment for right handers (golf, kayak paddles etc) although even this isn't as bad as it once was.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:37 pm
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Annoyances? Things that have a directional grip pattern when they don't have to. Stuff like pliers, drills, automatic weapons...

😉

I've found a fountain pen made a massive recent difference to my handwriting. Lefties tend to push the pen instead of pulling it, so a low-drag fountain pen instead of a ballpoint doesn't catch on the paper.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:38 pm
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Get him to play hockey, lefties are a real PITA to mark and manage, gives him a real advantage.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:41 pm
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The only thing I think I ever struggled with particularly was learning to tie shoelaces - because my right-handed parents taught me to tie them right handed. My little sister could do it before I could. As I still remember this I can only assume that it scarred me mentally.

Other than that, he'll just end up being able to do more stuff with either hand than most people. I'm not ambidextrous by any means, but can throw, play cricket/squash, use tools etc with either hand, which I reckon is down to learning to tie knots, use scissors etc the 'wrong' way around.

Oh, and he'll probably find that if he has to sign anything in a shop, he gets the pen thrust at his right hand.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:48 pm
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automatic weapons
the hot, spent cartridge of an AK47 fires towards a leftie rather than anyway, as I found on a dodgy trip in Slovakia


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 3:53 pm
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the joys of being ambidextrous


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:02 pm
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Not sure about the ink smudging thing either. I worked with a right-handed Iraqi guy for a while who'd obviously learned to write right to left in Arabic, and I asked him if he had trouble smudging ink with a fountain pen. The issue had never occurred to him once in 55 years, so he grabbed the pen and wrote to see how he avoid it. He just arced his hand around the script automatically, no bother. So if right-handed Arabs can manage it, surely left handed Euros can too.

I used to play brass instruments, where you operate the valves with your right hand, then I took up the French horn which is the only one where you use the keys with your left hand. It took about a day to get used to it. I don't think it's that big of a deal. In the days of 16 bit home computers I taught myself to use the joystick with my left hand so I could hammer the fire button more quickly with my right - that became more natural after a while. Interesting that, because whilst I had just as much dexterity with either hand, I could never hammer the fire button as quickly with the left.

I went out with a leftie too, she taught herself to use a mouse with her right hand (without difficulty) because it was too much trouble to keep swapping them over at university computers. I also try to use tools with either hand too so I can switch when one gets tired.

I don't think it's as hard as all that to swap side, except possibly writing or other things requiring extreme dexterity.

Oh and whilst I am a true rightie, I instinctively get on a skateboard the goofy way round.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:07 pm
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I don't know why some things work in both hands and some don't - I'm perfectly happy using mice and trackpads with my right hand, but not spanners.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:11 pm
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Annoyances? Things that have a directional grip pattern when they don't have to. Stuff like pliers, drills, automatic weapons...

This +1 - my wife bought a mug with a handle on a slight angle, great for right handers but a pain for me... Things like turnstiles in the Underground and the keyhole on the outside of the front door are always on the right, too. Minor things, but irritating.

Oh, and he'll probably find that if he has to sign anything in a shop, he gets the pen thrust at his right hand.

Also a pain.

Forget the left-handed scissors, they won't have them at school, in the workplace, etc., and it's not hard to learn. Likewise rulers etc. Writing's probably the hardest thing, teach him to angle the paper properly and not drag his hand.

There is a slightly higher probability of dyslexia in left handed people, be worth keeping an eye out for this (although the probability is still small).


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:11 pm
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Oh, and make sure he learns to use a mouse with his right hand, much better - leaves the left free to write notes / type.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:12 pm
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Lefties are better at doing skidz - fact!

In more useful (well, not really) news, I've never had a problem being a leftie. Computer mice are a right thing, you use it all the time so it's never likely to be a proble. Apart from that, the only other rightie thing I do is play golf - golfing left-handed just seems weird and always has done.

There is the minor problem of the Devil controlling most of my actions, but as he clearly likes skidz I can deal with that


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:12 pm
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I find I do some things left some things right, am reasonable with both feet pretty much.

I find it hard to use left handed scissors, much prefer a right handed pair in my left hand :S

Play guitar right handed, eat right handed, peel spuds right handed but would bat left handed in cricket/rounders, throw with my left.

A right old mess up really, either way it has neither helped nor hindered me really.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:12 pm
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I have never understood why some left handed guitarists, bassists and drummers play the other way round. How many left handed pianos, violins, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, etc have you seen? You use both hands and the left hand has arguably the more difficult job on guitars and is the centre of the groove on drums (snare). Play conventional (so-called 'righty')!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:13 pm
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Ooh yes legend, I use a mouse in the right hand which leaves my good hand for keyboard short cuts etc. I can use the mouse in my left if I need to, came in handy when I broke my wrist!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:14 pm
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There are a few tools that don't work quite so well like files with a cut pattern the wrong way but I can't think of much else. On the up side a disproportionate number of architects are lefties, no self respecting cricket team would turn down the chance of a left handed spinner and left handed sailors have the tiller in the favoured hand on the start line on starboard tack.

Freakily I'm left handed as were all my serious girlfriends(4) and my wife.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:14 pm
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I know this isn't a right-on thing to say but do wish that I'd been 'persuaded' to use my right hand.

Wot a struggle with being taught to knit!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:14 pm
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I'm a leftie but only really kick a ball and right lefty. Throw righty bat righty eat soup lefty. Err


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:17 pm
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I am a leftie...sort of. The only things I do with my left hand are write and play snooker. Everything else is done with the right like throwing, chopping, golf and w**king. I cant throw with my left to save my life.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:18 pm
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I'm a leftie and: play guitar, box, iron and use most stuff right handed. I can't use my left hand for other stuff apart from writing its proper weird! I can use both my legs for football. Yup I'm an odd one.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:22 pm
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chiefgrooveguru - Member
I have never understood why some left handed guitarists, bassists and drummers play the other way round. How many left handed pianos, violins, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, etc have you seen? You use both hands and the left hand has arguably the more difficult job on guitars and is the centre of the groove on drums (snare). Play conventional (so-called 'righty')!

Why should I? If they made clarinets that were left-handed, I'm sure left-handed players would use them...


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:25 pm
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As others have said scissors!! Also worth checking for dyslexia!?!

You may well find he does some thing leftie and some rightie - this can be confusing as well as great.

But mainly scissors!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:26 pm
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I'm a lefty. However, I play golf and cricket right handed.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:41 pm
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Tracey - Member

Kevin has got out of the ironing for the last 22 years because we dont have a left handed iron

Eh?
Can't he just turn the ironing board round?

I haven't ironed anything since the 80's so this might not work... 🙂


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:46 pm
 Kuco
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Same as pejay I have to be careful with some pens else I end up smudging the ink.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:46 pm
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Kevin has got out of the ironing for the last 22 years because we dont have a left handed iron

Do you hold his tea for him too? Every mug I've ever came across has been right handed. 😉


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:49 pm
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I only have lefty guiars

Nothing else is an issue or ever has been


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:52 pm
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Leftie, and the only thing I've ever had a problem with is the smudging ink issue at school. I'd say other than avoiding that, and using scissors/mouse with the right hand, he shouldn't really have any problems.

Personally:
Two-handed bat/racquet/club sports (golf, cricket, baseball) I play right-handed, one-handed ones I play left-handed. Use scissors and a mouse with my right hand naturally, watch goes on left wrist. Feel more comfortable in a RHD car. Right-footed, skateboard goofy, but push with front foot (which is wrong). Right-foot forwards feels more natural on a bike with the pedals level too. Suppose I'm kind of ambidextrous then...!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:52 pm
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I use a mouse in the right hand which leaves my good hand for keyboard short cuts etc.

I do this too, but it's a lucky coincidence rather than by design. The first mouse I used was on an Atari ST; it plugged into the side of the computer and the cable wasn't long enough to have the mouse on the left.

Minor things, but irritating.

These days, it's the little things that wind me up most.

Like, the Mondeo I've just parted company with had a spring-loaded key. Press a button and the key blade swings out of the side. Except, if you're left handed it springs into the palm of your hand instead.

Pens tethered to the right hand side of the counter in petrol stations and banks is another one. Would it kill you to make the cord six inches longer?


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:56 pm
 ski
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The hardest thing for me being left handed was to learn to use a chainsaw right handed!

I would not recommend holding a chainsaw left handed as its considered very dangerous!

When he is old enough get him a left handed cork screw, that can be fun watching a right handed person trying to use 😉

[url= http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/how-lh/corkscrew.html#sthash.zEp2P45r.dpbs ]http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/how-lh/corkscrew.html#sthash.zEp2P45r.dpbs[/url]


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 4:59 pm
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I'm perfectly happy using mice and trackpads with my right hand, but not spanners.

See, I can use spanners with either* but I can't use a mouse very well with the other hand. Being able to use a mouse and write at the same time is pretty fantastic though 🙂

PS Cougar I would have put you down for an Atari man, funny that. But you can hold those Ford keys upside-down it still works.

* when working on cars sometimes only one hand will fit one way up, so you have to manage!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:01 pm
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+: more likely that first critical punch will get through when scrapping
-: will lose more arm wrestles

My school forced me to write with fountain pens which was the bane of my life. I never really worked out a way to completely write without smudging, I just switched to pencils and biros as soon as I could.
School also had the mice cable clamped to the desk on the right side so I had to learn to use it that side, now I don't like using it on the left. I was even forced to for a while when I broke my wrist but went straight back to right handed as soon as I could. I always think it's strange, as an engineer it would be really useful to have my right hand free for the number pad but it just doesn't feel right.

The knack for using right handed scissors is to contort your hand to force the blades together, but I guess it will be a while till be can do that. Left handed rulers are really useful but I also think it's best not to be dependent on these things.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:09 pm
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Leftie. some things are more of a pain than others. Right handed writing was beaten into me (Thanks Mrs Edwards) 👿 . Scissors are right handed, by the time I realised there were left handed ones, they felt weird. changing knives and forks over seems to annoy more people than it should.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:22 pm
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I write with my left hand, but do everything else with the right side of my body. My older brother and sister are true lefties, and i think i decided that i wanted to write like they did so used my left!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:23 pm
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Lefty - play right-handed guitars. Learn on RH from the start & it should never be an issue


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:23 pm
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My wife is a leftie

She has trouble using a potato peeler


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:36 pm
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I'm a leftie, no problem using scissors in either hand I sussed out as a nipper how to use r/h scissors in my left hand, handwriting can be a bit smudgy at times, use a mouse r/h as when I first started using one I decided I'd need my l/h free to write notes if needed, cricket l/h or r/h, right footed for football, lead with my left foot on a bike.

To be honest I think with most things I've decided I'll use a certain side for one reason or another and just gone with it. About the only thing that I find a real challenge using my right for is writing.

Where I do think there is an advantage being a leftie is with the trend for a mouse/control wheel in a cars centre console. As usually the car has been designed for a l/h drive market so a person would naturally use their dominant hand (r/h) on the control. So when a car comes over here most people find the control at their left to be a challenge, well apart from use lefties.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:45 pm
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Forgot about bloody peelers!!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:51 pm
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Being left handed is ace at school playing rounders, you can amble round at your own pace when the other team are all running from one side of the field to the other.

Peelers are fine as long as you use your own and don't let any righties use it; it's when they twist a bit they start getting rubbish. Those U shaped ones are much better.

Cake forks, though. The blade bit is on the wrong side. The bane of my middle-class existence... until I was given a left handed one! Win.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 5:55 pm
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You have to love molgrips - as a right hander posting on a thread about left handers and telling us it isn't that difficult. I'll bear that in mind for the future - thanks.

It isn't worth getting all that special left-handed stuff as has been said - it is a RH world and not worth carting a load of scissors / cake forks / rulers around - just get used to the normal ones. My writing is crap and I do smudge the ink, as did most of the LH kids at my school. Probably not a problem for kids now.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 6:01 pm
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Oh for the black and white world of a leftie or righty. I have cross-dominance, which is not quite left, not quite right, not quite ambidextrous.

I write with my right hand, hold stuff with handles with my left, but can also do right, I play drums right and left handed, Guitar right hand only, Football with both left and right, knife and fork opposite way around, and on and on.

People with cross-dominance are supposed to have issues like which is the dominant eye, and balance issues. I seem to be alright with eye dominance, but the balance stuff might explain a few of the weird crashes I've had on my bike. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 😳


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 6:04 pm
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I should add,

I'm very definitely left-handed. I'm left footed, and left eye dominant. Naturally, I do very very few things right-handed.

I play pool right-handed for no discernible reason, and figured a while back that the wrong-eye dominant thing was causing me to be rubbish so I forced myself to relearn. Now I'm equally shit with both hands.

I shoot (a bow) right-handed, but that's because the only equipment available when I was learning was right-handed; my instinct was to shoot left. By the time I got hold of a lefty bow I'd been shooting so long wrong-handed that I just couldn't use it. (For archery, the key thing is your dominant eye rather than your dominant hand, so I really should have persevered. Ho hum.)

Writing, I have a natural style (as opposed to some lefties who twist the paper or hook their hand, or some other oddness). Throughout school I got told off for having bad handwriting and pressing on too hard; it's only now in hindsight I've realised that with your left hand you're pushing the pen into the paper rather than pulling it over, so of course I press on too hard.

The knife and fork thing is an odd one, because I really don't understand the logic that says you use a fork / spoon in your right hand, but [i]switch hands [/i]if a knife is involved. That's just weird. I hold a fork in my left regardless, so right-handed place settings are correct for me already.

Scissors it's worth learning wrong-handed because as others have said, the number of times you'll need to use scissors in your life that aren't your 'special' ones make it more bother than just changing hands. Naturally the pressure from your thumb pushes the blades together, but if you change hands that same force pushes them apart; as a kid, I just used my right hand, but you can use them left-handed if you make a conscious effort to 'pull' counter-intuitively with your thumb. I use them in my right hand now without thinking about it, but knowing that is a useful skill when you're using nail scissors.

Serrated knives are a 'gotcha'. The serrates are on one side, and counteract natural twisting of the wrist as you cut; left-handed they amplify the twist instead. For years I thought I was hopeless at cutting bread (unless you like bread wedges), getting a lefty knife was a revelation.

One thing I caught myself doing relatively recently is opening bottles wrong. Instinctively I hold the bottle in my left and twist the cap with my right, so you move your arms / elbows outwards which isn't very strong. Swapping round and holding the cap with my left, your arms lever inwards and you can get more force behind it. Only took me 40 years to work that one out.

Shoelaces and such is arguably easier to learn if you're left-handed. You perfectly mirror the person teaching you. That's true of a lot of things.

My wife is a leftie

She has trouble using a potato peeler

You can get double-edged ones. I inherited my gran's "Lancashire peeler" - it's blunt as buggery right-handed, but the left-hand edge was a virgin blade.

Can openers were my nemesis for years. I contorted my hands around in a bizarre manner with my wrists crossed. I've un-learned that now, though.

Left-handed corkscrews are ace; not because they help in any sort of meaningful way but because they mess with people's heads when they get a taste of what it's like to live day-to-day in a wrong-handed world.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 6:08 pm
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PS Cougar I would have put you down for an Atari man, funny that.

I was an early adopter; the Amiga wasn't available when I got the ST.

But you can hold those Ford keys upside-down it still works.

Sure, it was just a random example. A lot of user interfaces are hand-ist though. Mobile phones where the edge buttons are placed perfectly for your thumb, for instance. I can't offhand (ho ho!) think of a better example, but I very very regularly pick stuff up and growl quietly to myself about it.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 6:15 pm
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Leftie
Defeated my mothers determined attempts to teach me to knit
Never found a left handed fish knife and right handed ones are useless

Reading the above and compiling a shopping list 🙂


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 6:17 pm
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I'm hilariously left handed, a fact not assisted by the plethora of broken and plated bones in my right hand and wrist. I do remember reading that forcing children to be wrong handed can cause developmental issues, so it would be worth looking at that aspect. I can't imagine that applies to infrequently used objects like scissors or bread knives though. I, like most other lefties, have learnt to get by on these things. Anything requiring a level of dexterity such as guitar you'd benefit from Lh specific equipment.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 7:19 pm
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I find that using a keyboard as a leftie got a lot easier when I discovered CTRL&Insert / Shift&Insert for copying and pasting. I type a lot of numbers as well, so having the mouse in my left with the number pad right in front of my right hand is perfect for me.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 7:40 pm
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Never knew that fact about knives, thanks for that, years of wonky bread slices could be at an end. Or I could hack a finger off using a knife in my right hand...


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 7:49 pm
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well being catholic didnt help in the 80's my dad tried to force me to be right-handed, so now i am right handed in some ways and left in others. i write left handed and also for tennis, but play golf with the right, also open bottles and use scissors with the right.

it didnt do me any harm, but only pain was as a kid at school when having to use a fountain pen with my left hand my hand kept smudging the ink, VERY annoying.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 7:55 pm
 ski
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Forgot about these!

[img] https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRxqOBF0FadTpK8SkAj52UdoXtoBvKo597_nGj7ptCCzcmEbV3yiA [/img]

Can remember back in the day, getting so frustrated that the fire button was on the left, most of the time the fire did not seem to work properly if you were left handed, my excuse for losing so often 😉

Does anyone else remember the Atari 2600 😉


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 7:56 pm
 hora
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Alot of guns eject spent shells to the right.

I had to shoot righthanded.

You also smear ink when writing.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:05 pm
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I'm a leftie but have done things that come naturally with whichever side of the body.

Throw with my left, articulate with my left hand use a tablet pen with my left but a mouse with my right. Wear a watch on my left arm, shoot with my right foot, play the guitar like a right hander etc. etc..

I had tennis coaching when I was about 7-8 but kept getting into trouble as I would switch hand rather than backhand the shot. Coaches didn't like it but I did as I could smash a forehand with either.

I even studied left handedness and it's perceived advantages in sport for my final year dissertation at University.

IMO we live in in a right-handed world and us southpaws have to make do the best we can. Whatever comes naturally will be the outcome.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:06 pm
 hora
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I make live with both hands


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:16 pm
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Both my (gemini) parents are left handed, my brother and I are right handed and two of my kids (the gemini ones) are both cross domnant (some things left handed and some things right) - means nothing I know but sometimes used in the family to dismiss all Gemini's as odd

cinnamon_girl - MemberI know this isn't a right-on thing to say but do wish that I'd been 'persuaded' to use my right hand.Wot a struggle with being taught to knit

I taught my daughter to knit using mirrors, she has since taught herself to crotchet right handed . .

And I have completely given up trying to remember who has their cutlery on what side as it changes day to day

On a scarier note a friend of mine managed to remove some of his fingers as the guard on the saw wasnt much use when used in the other hand . . . .


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:17 pm
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That's a point, angle grinders and power files are the wrong way around for me, I always have to take more care with them as I'm effectively using them one-handed.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:19 pm
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Helluva lot of left handers on here.....disproportionate? To say only 10% of the worlds populus are lefties

Some facts here
http://facts.randomhistory.com/facts-about-left-handedness.html

Point 11- 😯


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:48 pm
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I'm a lefty for writing only. except for blackboards. (I dunno!)

Right for everything else.. except for
both feet for footy
both hands for painting
both hands for w**king.

Mrs CheeZe is a lot more lefty than me.. worries the hell out of me when she's got a kitchen knife in her southpaw!


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:56 pm
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Really want a left-handed corkscrew now.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 8:59 pm
 Kuco
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The hardest thing for me being left handed was to learn to use a chainsaw right handed!

That came pretty natural for me.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 9:01 pm
 ski
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Kuco - Member

The hardest thing for me being left handed was to learn to use a chainsaw right handed!

That came pretty natural for me.

It was the urge to use the throttle control/trigger action with my left hand.

Now mastered, thankfully before any accidents, but it did not come naturally for me.

Kuco do you shoot with your right hand too?


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 9:13 pm
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This will rarely be an issue in life but I used to have problems using a hand drill as you have to go backwards instead of forwards. I also can't use a fork and a spoon when eating pasta as I can't use either with my right hand. Old tin openers were a problem too.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 9:46 pm
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I'm 40 and a leftie. it can be a pain as the world is made for right handers, but you learn to cope fine. my view...don't get anything much 'special' for a leftie, let the child learn to use it /cope rightie, however there are no hard and fast rules. I say learn to cope as often the special leftie tool isn't around.

however, be understanding and recognize that handwriting, eating with knife and fork and various other simple things you take for granted will seem difficult to a leftie and take a wee bit longer to pick up. we all get their in the end though.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 9:49 pm
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I found / find writing to be the hardest part of being a leftie. Other than that you learn to cope. Lets face it, it's not [i]really[/i] a problem like being vegetarian or ginger.

I think that with most lefties, I'm a little more ambidextrous than most right-handed people. For example, I use a right handed mouse, brilliant for using a PC with a drawing pad and mouse at the same time. I can eat right-handedly and catch / throw with either hand.

A 5 year old boy with very strict Muslim parents was left handed. They came in after school and asked if their son could be encouraged / forced to use his right hand. It was explained to them why not but all the time, I was thinking about how he was very, very clearly gay and the father would forget all about the leftiness in a few years time.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 10:01 pm
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Thinking about the fork and spoon, how do right handers manage then?


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 10:07 pm
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fork and spoon is odd. knife and fork = fork in the left. spoon = spoon in the left. fork and spoon...spoon in the left aand wave the fork about uselessly...well that's me at least.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 10:11 pm
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thing I find the worst is posidrive screws that need to be done TIGHT. try it. I'm sure its easier to drive and twist a rh thread wit the right hand. however I guess I am able to remove tight screws more easily.


 
Posted : 18/06/2013 10:13 pm
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Never knew that fact about knives, thanks for that, years of wonky bread slices could be at an end.

I would dearly love feedback on this, please keep me posted.

Can remember back in the day, getting so frustrated that the fire button was on the left, most of the time the fire did not seem to work properly if you were left handed, my excuse for losing so often

I use old-school joysticks with my right hand on the stick and the left frobbing the fire button, but whether that's instinct or learned behaviour I honestly couldn't say. Though, a) arcade cabs are configured the other way around, and b) I guarantee my left thumb's rate of fire will out-shoot anyone ever.

Helluva lot of left handers on here.....disproportionate?

Very interesting question.


 
Posted : 19/06/2013 12:04 am
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Being naturally left handed has totally screwed my co-ordination mojo. Not cos of anything I have done, but because of how I was treated as a kid in schools. and I'm only 40. I remember clear as day in early primary school being told off for drawing my alphabet letters left handed in pencil. always being told off for that. And then being made to look like an idiot cos I couldn't match the right hand kids with my right hand, despite being a perfectionist with my left hand! WTF!! I felt so left out and wrong and all the other little kids were right. Cos someone said so, and I was a tiny kid. SO now I write/paint'draw right handed. Throw/Kick left handed. Play tennis left handed. Play cricket/golf right handed. I remember going to a new school and we were all lined up to do long jump (something I had never done before) and I just lined up in the big line. totally ****ed it up, got laughed at as the new kid. Went to the other line, and aced it, and got really good.. My experience in education has totally buggered my natural born left handedness up. Which makes me a bit sad and angry thinking about it and I wouldn't be surprised if it has contributed to my feelings of always being a bit of an outsider/underdog/low-self esteem and why I don't trust authority figures.


 
Posted : 19/06/2013 12:14 am
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