General Chat

Hi Magi I'm a leftie and can honestly say it has never been a problem in all my 56 years! When I was 16 I joined the GPO telephones (now BT) as a telephonist. My interview was much stricter than for right handers as I had to prove that my right hand was strong enough to use the dial which was on the right on the switchboard. This was in 1965! Luckily I write as a right hander, but with my left hand. I don't write from above the writing as most lefties seem to do (does that make sense? LOL) I have left handed scissors, which I discovered in my 30s via a leftie friend, and can honestly say they have transformed my life!! I used to do lots of dressmaking and using 'normal scissors' was a nightmare. Now thanks to anythinglefthanded I have most household gadgets. The clock sounds good, I'll have to get one of those! I don't think I'm particularly artistic though. My dad was left handed, but at school in Canada in the 1920s his left hand was tied behind his back to make him use his right. How barbaric! It didn't seem to have harmed him though :o) He wrote with his right, but did everything else as a leftie, including kicking a ball. I don't know of any other relatives before Dad who were lefties, maybe they were all changed too. Interestingly, my brother writes right handed, but does everything else as a leftie! His 2 daughters are right handed too. I sew left handed, but knit and crochet right handed because somehow it just didn't feel right to do it the other way! My mouse is on the right too. I eat with my knife in my right hand, but use a spoon in my left. I have 4 children and 3 biological grandchildren, all of whom are right handed. However, when my younger son was 5 or 6 he was having difficulties writing and we both saw an educational behaviour expert who concluded, among other things, that my son was a right hander with a left hander's brain and I was the opposite! He still writes as if a spider was walking across the page! He is not dyslexic though and neither am I. My handwriting is quite neat and I even won prizes for it at school. Always remember :- As the right hand side of the brain controls the left hand side of the body, only left handers are in their right minds! Lefties rule! LOL Sue xx

Hi Magi I'm not sure if you have heard of Dick Smith where you live but he has an electronics shop here in Tasmania and that is where I bought my clock. It does make people go crazy as the hands actually go anticlockwise along with the numbers, some people just glance at the clock and get a shock as to what they think the time is, until they realise about the numbers, then they stand there for another 5 minutes trying to work out what the time actually is :-))

Morning everyone - Peter - TOOLS! No chance, wont let me anywhere near a hammer, not that I'm complaining ...lol... Shaz - A budding Paul McCartney I wonder, was Hendrix a leftie too I wonder? As for the alphabet, clever boy! Lisa J - Me too! Dad always said I was dyslexic with numbers (could this be a new thread?) totally hopeless at math Felicity - Helicopter pilots - love it! Nell - you're better than me girl, it's a left-handed peeler or nothing. Mind you my son prefers to do the spuds himself than watch me with anything sharp... Sue - I want one! Havent got that gadget, where can I get a left/reverse clock? Boy that would make my lot crazy. Chloe - So many theories I agree, but hey, us lefties have to start somewhere,why dont you love your nose? I'd love to hear more Thx Magi

I'm left handed. My dad is technically left handed (was made at school to use his right hand). None of my grandparents were left handed. One of my maternal cousins is, (first cousin), but have no idea where we get it from. For me to be left handed I needed the gene on both sides of the gene pool, my dad's and my mum's.... no idea where my mum got it from or my dad! None of his brothers are left handed, neither were his parents. It's one of those things that genealogy just can't answer, grrrr! Like my nose, where did I get this ugly thing from?!? LOL

Another interesting titbit to add to this - My brother - who is left-handed - told me that almost 100% of helicopter pilots are left-handed!!!

Hi Magi. My brother, mum and I are left-handed. My dad was right-handed, but his father was a lefty. My mum's uncle and son were left-handed. Both of my boys started out using their left hands, but changed to right when they saw other children writing with their right hands. And yes, quite a few of us have learning difficulties. Years ago it was said that people who were left-handed had some sort of problem before birth and thus favoured their left hands (right brains). I've found that most of the left-handed people I know are very creative, musically and/or artistically. However, most of them also can't add 2 + 2 (especially me). :~) I've also worked with children who had learning disabilities and almost all of them were righthanded.

Well apparently left handed people use both sides of their brains and left handed people tend to recover quicker from strokes because of this. I know we all use both sides but there are parts in one of the sides that right handers never use and left handers do. They say that left handers are supposed to be more intelligent and some of the most intelligent people in the world were left handed. I looked into all of this when my youngest (sixth child) son began to use his left hand... all the others are right handed. Neither myself or his dad are left handed and neither are any of our parents. One of my aunts is left handed (she is a twin but the other is right handed) and one of my better halves cousins is left handed but thats about it. Cant say much about my son yet as he only turned three in November but he has been able to say his alphabet since he was two and is also able to strum a couple of chords on both the guitar and bass guitar even though he is holding it upside down... obviously because its a right handed bass and guitar. Shaz xx

I am left-handed and the only family member I know of who is. My mother had a brother who died young who was ambidextrous. As far as I know there is no dyslexia in the family, the only artistic person was my Uncle Sam who was right-handed. I work in a school where the majority of teachers are lefties! I've worked with several dyslexic children and only one of them was left-handed, and he was very mildly dyslexic. I use my left hand for writing and for scissors & sharp knives, though i can use a right-handed peeler. I eat the right-handed way too and hold a mug in my right hand. I have problems with 3d space orientation. nell

Hi all I'm a lefty and proud of it. I write left handed but when I am eating with a knife and fork I eat right handed, but I use the spoon in my left hand not my right. I love going to a restaurant and sitting down to the table and changing the spoon from being beside the knife to being next to the fork. I have lost count how many waitress come up and are real apologetic about the setting being wrong, until I tell them that I am left handed and I moved the spoon. I am not dyslexic, that I know of :-) but Karen mentioned about is there a lefthanded mouse, well you can have a mouse set up to be left handed or right handed, a left button click for right handers, or a right button click for left handers. But with my partner being right handed and with lefties being smarter than righties. (the left side of the brain is the smart side) I just use my left hand with the buttons set up for right handers, I just hold my hand on a bit of an angle. I also have a left handed clock which only I can read, the numbers go anti clockwise, some call them reverse clocks. I am the only lefty in my family, I have 3 children who all write with their right hand but occasionally one of them will eat left handed.

Hi Magi, I don't know of anyone in my family who was left-handed previous to my father's generation. He was left-handed only because he had an accident to his right arm as a teenager and had to re-learn to become left-handed. I and my brother are right-handed but my sister and youngest brother are both left-handed and all three of my sister's children are also left-handed. Both my brother's children are right-handed. No-one in the family is dyslexic or particularly artistically gifted. The 'genetic' idea is interesting but it seems to have been something that popped up in our family out of nowhere.

Hi Karen, Thanks to you I've just realised I use my right hand for mouse,and txt'ing on the mobile... hmmm... Being left - handed is definitely genetic and just like having twins in the family can sometimes skip more than one generation. You can get almost anything left-handed, there's even a terrific web-site www.everythinglefthanded.com - great stuff, wish they'd been around years ago when I was looking for a tin opener! In my last school us lefties out-numbered the rights, now that was definitely a first. Magi

Hi Magi My husband is left handed but can use his right hand too. Some years ago a group of his family were playing darts and I noticed that two of his cousins on his mum's side were left handed too, there are only eight of that generation and I don't have details of the others. Now that I'm researching his family history I find that his g-g-granddad was the only one of six children who didn't sign his marriage cert or any other document and I'm wondering if he was left handed too. All three of our children are right handed but our grandson is left handed, does it skip a generation? Heather

I'm left handed! Everyone else in my family is right handed, except my maternal grandfather - we think! I say that because he died in 1963 (when my mum was 3 and 20 years before I was born), and my mum can't remember!

Hi, my late father-in-law was left-handed, my husband and his brother are left handed and my first son is left-handed. Daughter is right-handed like me and my family. I thought my youngest son would be left-handed (following the male line), but he is right-handed. Think it does run in families then. Best wishes, Carol.

Hope you're getting somewhere Sheila. My cousin (leftie too) has a dyspraxic son - he, h,mself is dyslexic and the whole faimly have had to fight to get recognition - depends on the UK catchment area I'm sure as to the response you get. Keep fighting for him Magi xx

My first day at school is a family joke, and has been for years...lol... the boy I sat next to started writing the usual way, hmmm he's using the other hand I thought ... I began writing from right to left, and more or less mirrored his writing. I was lucky, my mom's best friend was my teacher. Machev - I have left-handed scissors and every other tool - gadget I can get my hands on. Neither of the parents could bear to watch me with a knife or scissors though. Anne - I wouldnt be too concerned, she'll find her way Magi xx

I spoke to my sons teacher about this a few months ago. He's six and left handed and artistic and my father was right handed & dyslexic he worked as a carpenter. My nephew is dyspraxic & artistic , my uncle left handed a builder and my brother-in-law dyslexic and teaches surgery. So I personally think they need to keep an eye on my son! Sheila

I forgot in my haste this morning, my left handed daughter is dyslexic, she used to start reading from the right hand side of the page and start writing in the right hand corner and the words would run backwards as well, the teachers were absolutely no help, she ended up with a tutor, her spelling is still bad today she has to double check her words. Anne

My apologies everyone for disappearing, the dog had his legs crossed lol .He doesnt care if it's snowing or not, anyway I'm thawed out now after being knee deep in the stuff lol Gwyneth - being artistic does appear to have left-handed connections & as you say it's an interesting subject, one I'm more than passionate about. We live in Turkey and the dyslexia - leftie connection is really a strong one here. Anne - I'm the clumsiest beggar ever! 46 next month and getting worse Melanie - no-one should ever have been made to use the other hand at all. Must admit though the dog is a southpaw as I've always given him everything with my left

Hi Magi, I worked with kids with reading difficulties and dyslexia as a classroom assistant. I too noticed this connection, that of the six kids I worked with five were left handed. I asked the teacher if there was a connection and she said she had seen it time and time again, that left handed children did have more difficulties. Having said that my youngest son is the only one in our family who is left handed. I did wonder if he would struggle at school but as yet he has had no problems. Christine