Any lefties here? Do you ever wish you were right handed?

I guess my main question would be should a parent try to force their child to be right handed if they're showing left hand dominance with the belief that being left handed will be an inconvenience for them later in life? This is an ongoing debate I have with my husband about our 2 year old. I say let the child use whatever hand he wants. Left hands matter!

Trust me, break his left hand and force him to adapt. There's a reason left handers used to be thrown into pots with boiling water, which is the standard practice for dealing with satanic witches.

So you're coming out as left handed finally?

Forcing a left handed person to be right handed has been proven to cause learning disorders, stuttering, dyslexia (while it isn't too problematic, it can make math and reading a bit of challenge growing up) and other issues. It would be best to let the little one grow up left handed or maybe they will develop cross-handed or be ambidextrous as they grow older to compensate

I think forcing a child to do anything does more harm than good. Do you have some sources for the things you mentioned? I'd like to show my husband something that might convince him to let the little guy use whatever hand he wants.

There are many left handed awareness websites and organizations. But here are some studies and other references:

https://lefthander-consulting.org/english/information/problem/

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/22/7/2816

https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2014.00013

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11923446/

https://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/being-lh/children/changing-left-to-right.html#:~:text=Forcing%20them%20to%20change%20hands,time%20and%20ruining%20their%20handwriting!&text=Changing%20the%20hand%20used%20for,lot%20of%20knock%2Don%20effects.

https://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/changing-left-to-right.html

https://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/update-changing-left-handers-to-right.html

https://www.lefthandersday.com/tour

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11442676_Long-Term_Consequences_of_Switching_Handedness_A_Positron_Emission_Tomography_Study_on_Handwriting_in_Converted_Left-Handers

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22332811/

https://www.press.jhu.edu/news/blog/stuttering-and-%E2%80%9Cretraining%E2%80%9D-left-handed-children-mid-century-us

Anecdotal but still very relevant from left handers who were forced to be right handed and some reverting back to their left hand: https://www.quora.com/What-happens-if-natural-left-handers-forced-to-using-his-right-hand

Hope this all helps.

Don't forget Bill Clinton and Ghandi!

I grew up writing and using my left for everything but occasionally, I've been caught using my right hand just as well so personally, I don't know lol- I practically subconsciously being ambidextrous. I would use my left hand as my dominant hand though, yes, and it's not easy. I'm currently a Freshmen and having to write notes, essays, sports, gaming, or basically anything requiring hand coordination where most of your peers are right-handed is tricky but it is something new. I see right-handed people struggle so hard with using their left hand but I and every other left-handed people I know, I guess we are forced to learn to use our right hand but at the same time, we don't drop using our left hand so I guess it's good to use a left hand. It allows a chance to be ambidextrous but that's just me and like I said, I practically grew up being ambidextrous if that is the correct phrase for being dominant in left and right hands.

A little background, my husband comes from a majority muslim country and they look down on left handedness

damn this is starting to become a metaphor

A metaphor for what?

It’s 2021. Not 1970.

Astute observation

Yea I kind of sounded like Octavia_Melody when I said that. MB.

My point was we’re not really a right-handed society anymore.

It depends. If some public places like schools acknowledge that there are a tiny minority of people who are left handed then yeah it's easier. The question decided if it's difficult and not intolerable so yeah I think it's difficult. I wouldn't really know to be honest.

It can be inconvenient, but it just depends. I can't play guitar left-handed, leftie desks feel weird, because I don't *lean* on the hand I'm writing with, and sometimes I flip right and left (outside of my own). Other than that, wouldn't trade it for anything.

Lefty here. Answer: no.

Short and sweet, I like your style.

I'm left handed. I don't like to say it though because I'm more ambidextrous (uses both hands). I write with my left hand, but do everything else with my right, as it's stronger.

I also remember being told a funny story. My parents (both of them are right handed) thought that when I was a toddler, was joking around when I drew with my left hand. So sometimes, they'd take the crayon or pencil or whatever out of my left hand and put it in my right. It took me about 2 seconds to put it right back in my left.

I like being left handed haha

I have several family members who are left handed. They all had great memories too, how about you? Is that a left hand thing to remember details well?

Not for me... I have the memory of Swiss cheese 😂

My sister is the only lefty in my family. She takes advantage of it by claiming the seat that isnt near anyone, or always needing to sit next to a lefty friend. She complains a ton, but I know she likes being able to buy those "Lefties Only" mugs.
BTW, lefties get ink all over their hand when they write, but I'm a righty, and when I write Hebrew, it goes the other way so I still get ink all over my hand...

Most of the time no, until you try looking for new things like drawing tablets or things built without left handers in mind. Guns can be an issue with the cartridge ejector being pretty much in your face.

Muslim countries (most likely due to the fact that they don't have running water in many places and hadiths dictating this, so they eat righthanded and wipe their butts lefthanded) and other old fashioned and superstitious people tend to not like you.

I can use my right hand for some tasks because I have more cross-dominance, but left handed still. Not difficult, just mildly annoying.

Are you left handed?

Yes, I have to duck under the fridge door

Somewhat, the worst thing is getting ink/pencil all over your hand when you write (since you have to drag it across what you’ve already written to write more.) scissors can also be difficult.

I wondered about the writing aspect. Most people I've seen left handed almost have to position the paper upside down. My husband thinks we should train our 2 year old who seems to be left hand dominant to use his right hand instead. He thinks this will save him headache later, I think we should just let him use whatever hand he wants. It's an ongoing debate for us. Thanks for your input!

No problem! My siblings and me are all lefties, but neither of our parents are. Odd, I'm not sure if there are any genetics involved.

My input definitely doesn't matter to you, but I personally would let a child use whichever hand they naturally use. The world is getting more lefty-conscious anyways!

Your input certainly does matter! I want to hear from people that it's ok to be left (handed)

Lefties, like Hendrix, seem to access the part of the brain that stimulates creativity, which was a benefit to him while playing guitar solos. They've done brain scans that show lefties and righties brains light up differently doing different tasks. Can't remember the details but an author of a Hendrix bio went into it.

It's true, left handed people are the only ones in their right mind.

*doubles up in pain*

Of course "right mind being" in the literal sense of right hemisphere ;)

I know that picture it sucks

#lefthandlife

Yes

This is kinda related-ish

So I play soccer, and although I’m right handed my left foot is far more dominant.

When I was younger almost all of the dribbling and passing drills were set up to use the right foot all the time.

Now they use both feet equally, but it was strange.

Everyone thought I wasn’t very good because I was always using my non-dominant foot.

Thanks to the practice I can now use both feet equally.
:)

I'm for most things right-handed, there are only a few things I always do left-handed, but those are not my most common activities. I write with my right hand. My sister however is left-handed, and I've never really see her seriously struggle with that. Now that room on the picture is really set up for right-hand only indeed, although that room also looks a bit outdated.

Now I do know that my parents were taught only to write right-handed, and left-hand writing was just not accepted, people not being able to master right-hand writing could even suffer severe punishments. This was no longer done when I grew up though. And I've seen chairs like those even in adaptable form so they could be easily used by left-handed people.

I've been told lefties have a shorter life-span due to the stress they endure in the right-hand world. I'm not really sure. I've seen a pair of scissors before made specifically for lefties. The pairs I see now can be used with both hands. I only think writing can indeed be a bit hard, since I think my hand covering what I just wrote (as would happen when you use a script from left-to-right) would make it awkward, which also makes me wondering if Israel has more lefties, due to Hebrew being written from right-to-left. Perhaps an Israeli or somebody speaking a language that also goes from right-to-left with reading like Arabic, can confirm that one.

My best friend is left handed, it just makes him really cool

I'm the only leftie in my fam. mom's righty, dad's righty, so are my cousins, and my grandparents.

im a leftie, and yes, it is kinda hard. For example, i went to get a baseball glove once, and it took at lot longer to get my glove than one for my right handed brother. And normally i dont even care about handedness

and also being a leftie makes it very hard to win smash bros........ *insert gaming struggle here*