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Should he be left handed?

(36 Posts)
Katek Thu 17-Aug-17 11:39:16

Further to the recent thread re left handedness and creativity I have a question re dgs2 (age 11) and physicality. As a baby/toddler he always favoured his left hand but also used his right. Nursery/parents didn't push him to choose a hand and by the time he started school he had chosen his right hand for drawing, writing etc. He is, however, totally left footed in football, rugby etc, plays golf left handed and throws left handed. I just wonder sometimes if he should have been left handed. Anybody else have a mix of left/right? My father did but think he was forced to use right hand in the 1920's. I have a left handed brother and I'm fairly ambidextrous and can write with both hands

Shizam Fri 18-Aug-17 15:06:44

Nadal intentionally retrained to play tennis left handed as they are harder for right handed players to beat.
I am naturally left handed but was forced to write with right hand when little. My mother presumably got fed up with this as skills such as sewing, cutting, bowling etc I do left handed, no way could I use right hand! My writing with left hand looks like a child's.

grandmac Fri 18-Aug-17 17:57:09

Both my daughters are lefties and set the table left handedly, but both eat right handed!

Theoddbird Fri 18-Aug-17 20:20:33

My eldest daughter is left handed but she eats right handed (knife in right hand). I have no idea why nor does she...

MamaCaz Fri 18-Aug-17 20:33:03

I eat right handed with knife and fork, but if only using a fork, i have no preference. The same applies to a spoon.
No preference over which hand i hold a cup in, either.

I have always blamed these things on breaking my right elbow when only 2.5 years old. I couldn't use it at all for 6 months, which obviously meant I was totally left-handed during all that time, but who knows!

starlily106 Fri 18-Aug-17 23:18:09

I am right handed, but do some things left handed. For example I deal cards and hold the cards the way left handed people do. I can also write with a pen in both hands, but the writing with my left hand is mirror writing. I remember my grandfather was ambidextrous.

watermeadow Sat 19-Aug-17 08:24:04

I thought that being ambidextrous was linked with lateness in talking and dyslexia but the many replies here don't mention any problems with it.
Now children are left to use whichever hand they want we can see that, as with gender, there are many shades of grey in between black and white.

kezia Sat 19-Aug-17 08:33:32

My daughter is left handed but eats right handedly (is that a word?) whilst my right handed son eats left handedly. Their father plays two handed sports as a leftie but one handed as a rightie. Both my DD and SiL are lefties but the gcs are righties. I find it all fascinating ?

Katek Sat 19-Aug-17 10:01:54

There seems to be a whole spectrum of 'handedness'!! It's one of those things one sort of assumes that if someone is left or right handed then that's it, that's what they are. Posts on this thread have shown otherwise. I wonder what this means in respect of the brain's left/tight dominance?
People with brain injuries can - and indeed do - relearn activities using the other side of the brain. I'm fascinated by the different writing styles adopted by left handers, brother writes normally from left to right as does Dil, but both have a very crabbed, tight handwriting. An old friend writes with her hand curved round the top of the page writing downwards, and I also know someone who turns the page sideways and writes from bottom to top. I need to go Googling!

MamaCaz Sat 19-Aug-17 10:41:23

I read somewhere recently that being ambidextrous means being able to use either hand equally well, as opposed to doing some things best with one hand but other things better with the other, as is commonly believed - I believe that someone gave the correct term for the latter earlier on the thread. Apologies for not remembering who.
On that basis, I doubt if many of us, if any at all, know anyone who is truly ambidextrous.

0wlfred Sat 19-Aug-17 19:46:14

I think it's important that people are allowed to use whichever had feels best to them for any activity.
My brother-in-law was forced against his instinct to use his right hand (by his mother) and he has had numerous psychological problems all his life, maybe not as a direct consequence, but I'm sure it did not help.