Lefthandedness... Are they or aren't they?!

I'm left handed but as a child made to be right handed. Like Phoenix I use my cutlery as per table setting but I do transfer my spoon to the left. I'm going to Sri Lanka shortly and in the list of does and don'ts it say using left hand for food is rude ( i.e. Bottom wiping hand I presume) but in India I've never had anyone look askance. Does anyone know if they are fussier in Sri Lanka? Don't wish to derail sorry.

One of my twins (born 1975), appeared totally ambidextrous when a toddler. When learning to write she would do two or three letters with one hand, then change over and do the next two or three letters with the other hand. I did take advice and was told to try to see which was the most dominant hand and encourage the use of that. It turned out she was more left-handed than right-handed. No problems ever at school. And she went on through Uni to obtain her Masters Degree with a Merit. She turns a sheet of paper almost upside down to write on it. She can still, if necessary revert to using her right hand for most things, but prefers the left. However, she eats right=handed, probably because she had a goodly number of siblings and I never ever remembered to lay her place differently to the rest of us.

I write with my left hand but am not as left-handed as my OH. I use the left hand for small movements and the right for large. I put on makeup with my left hand but brush my hair with the right hand. I play table tennis left-handed but tennis right-handed.

My OH does everything left handed, except put on mskeup. He doesn't do that at all.

I'll be paying much more attention to my actions when I dress tomorrow phoenix - never thought about it before (predominantly righty). DH is left handed despite cruel efforts of some teachers. A large percentage of our Gchildren are also lefties, the most interesting one of which used to draw with left and write with his right - I assume influenced by those areas of his brain.

Using cutlery with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right is the correct way to do it. If the left is your dominant hand, the fork is naturally the one to use. In the US, right-handers cut up their food and then transfer the fork to their right hand.

I am a cross-lateral, which means my dominant eye is opposite to my dominant hand. I am never sure when I pick up a new activity which hand will work best. If it requires aiming, like archery, the eye will be the most important.

I'm left handed, but use my cutlery (knife and fork) the "correct" way! However, the spoon is always in my left hand.

My ex was left handed too, and in the days when telephone receivers went across the phone, we could always tell if someone else had used the phone

When using a desktop computer, I use my right hand for the mouse, as it means I can make notes with my left, but a lefty colleague can only use the mouse with his left hand.

Oh, and when I had the choice as to which hip bone was to be the donor site for a graft, I opted for the right, as I felt that the left was somehow "special"!

I don't mind restaurants setting out cutlery as if all diners were right handed as most people are and there are also some left handers who may have been forced to eat right handed as children, mostly using the knife and fork, but not the spoon that way. I don't know whether Prince William does that. If I'm ever invited to dine with him, I'll check.

Have you noticed that bank counters often have a pen on a sbort string placed for use with the right hand? It would not be difficult to design a different arrangement equally suited to left and right handers. The essence of good behaviour is surely consideration for everyone.

There is no left handed way to set a table. Only the right way used by all restaurants,catering establishments etc. That is fork to the left hand. If you choose to do the opposite that is your prerogative. .I bet if you saw Prince William eat he would be using his knife and fork correctly, even though left handed.

Expecting left handed people to eat in the righthanded way is very inconsiderate -exactly the opposite of good manners.

There are degrees of lefthandedness. At one time children were often forced to write and eat as if they were all right handed. For some this was difficult and damaging. Fortunately we now live in more enlightened times.

If I invited the royal family to dinner I would lay the Queen's cutlery in the right handed way, but for Prince Willizm I would set his place in our normal left handed way.

I don't agree varian The correct way with cutlery is a fork in the left hand, a knife in the right No matter if you are left handed. I was taught that from an early age.and it is second nature now
You may say it doesn't matter but it does. An acquaintance of mine recently went for a prodigious job interview. He was taken to lunch. and realised very quickly that his table manners and correct use of cutlery were being assessed. After all if part of your new job is to wine and dine prospective customers good manners and a good impression is paramount.

We are both left-handed, so I always lay the table that way. Any guests who happen to be right handed just swap the knife and fork over and turn the spoon round. It's not that difficult.

One of my twins is left-handed,it was obvious from early babyhood,whenever he was offered something he would take it with his left hand ,even if when offered something we held his left hand he would take with his right but as soon as his left hand was free he always transfered it to his left hand.We never met any problems in childhood at all.

I don't see what difference it makes. One of my three children is and three of my six grandchildren are.

For some reason, my brain just will not compute laying a table in right handed settings. It should be easy: just the opposite of how I have my cutlery, but I always end up in a terrible mess.

I remember going to my friend's house years ago -laying the table for dinner knew she was left handed, but I put the other 4 settings (her husband, 2 sons and myself) right handed - when she came in she adjusted three of them, I hadn't realised that they were all left handed guess who felt the odd one out but we all had a good laugh.

What is it with society that we must label people. My brother is left handed, he is no different to my sister or myself, apart from the fact he's male. I say, leave the children to do what comes naturally.

My DD wrote with her left hand when she first started school, but it was always mirror writing. Her teacher never insisted she swap hands, but did insist that her writing should be from left to right, not the other way round. DD found that if she used her right hand she could accomplish this, so from then on she wrote mainly with her right hand. However, to this day she can write almost as well with her left hand - in fact one of her party tricks is to write simultaneously with both hands
She draws with her left hand, uses a spoon and toothbrush with her left hand and can apply her make up using both hands - left for left eye, right for right eye, much to the envy of her friends! Also, she has never had any problem using scissors with either hand, and simply can't understand why I can't use them with my left hand

I am left handed and it caused problems at school because we had to use fountain pens. Imagine dragging your hand over inky words! I had to learn to adapt. Teachers gave no extra time, even though I had to blot each word. I went on to win a national writing competition in my teens! My dad had his hand tied behind his back because he was left handed. He felt his writing was awful because he was forced to write with his right hand. These days I would not worry if my grandchildren were left handed. They will adapt, either way.

It's not always immediately obvious Starlady, as young children very often flit from one hand to the other when mark making and then beginning to learn to write, but have usually settled on the dominant hand by the end of Reception/early Year 1.

Clever girl. Is she a leftie?

DH, who is left-handed, told me that the right side of left handed people's brain is more dominant so only 'left-handed people are in their right mind'.

I had to get rid of a really lovely purse a while back, because it was somehow right handed. I just couldn't get to grips with it, literally.

My daughter used both hands until about 5 and then she became a leftie. I was told by someone that if your right eye is the dominate one then you are left handed and v v. Some children don’t developed a dominate eye straight away, as with my daughter. In fact we are all lefties in our house and it’s lovely everything is always the right way around. Knitting

Cutting a loaf squint has in my opinion more to do with eyesight than with right- or lefthandedness.

I have astigmatisms in both eyes and cannot cut a loaf straight to save my life. (With or without my glasses.) Admittedly, I am right handed, but so was my father who made a great fuss about the squint loaves of bread my mother and I were responsible for, but cut the b. loaf himself he would not. If he ever did so, it was, most annoyingly for his womenfolk, plumb straight.