Left-handedness

[JudoMom]

I was working with my ds4 this morning. It dawned on me that he's been working across the desk from me all year using his left hand, and he's got a perfect pencil grip (how it took me so many months to realize this needn't be discussed :001_huh:). I asked him to switch to his right and it was horrible.

 

My ds8 is absolutely left-handed. My ds7 prefers his left-hand, but I found out the other day that when his hand gets tired he switches to his right and his writing looks identical (he has equally poor penmanship with either hand :blink:). My ds5 is absolutely right-handed. It looks like ds4 will be left-handed. The jury, of course, is still out on ds2.

 

Isn't this an unusually high percentage? Neither dh nor I are left-handed, although dh's brother is left-handed and my Aunt is left-handed. Is it common among siblings to be left-handed?

[Cindy in FL.]

I have 5 boys, four of which I've had with my current husband. Of those four, 3 of them are lefthanded. Dh and I are both right handed.

 

People are always surprised that we have so many lefties!

 

Cindy

[hanki]

out of my three children, my daughters are left-handed and my son is right-handed. My oldest daughter was born with a deformity on her right hand (she only has her thumb and pinky) and I guess maybe her brain was re-wired?? to be left-handed (not quite sure if this happens). She functions quite well with her right but prefers to use her left. Anyway, my husband and I are both right-handed. My father is the only left-handed one I know of.

[Brindee]

Our youngest is left-handed. I didn't even know there was anyone in our family that was left-handed until I figured out she was. Then my dad said, oh yeah, Aunt (his sister) was left-handed, but that was when they tried to change lefties to righties, for whatever reason. So I talked to my aunt, she said she can't write well with her left OR her right now, and it was always frustrating for her! Glad they don't do that anymore, at least I hope they don't!

 

Anyway, my dd is the only lefty of my 3 kids. But she often throws and bats right-handed. A friend of ours is a lefty, and she said she does the same thing.

[all4ramseys@msn.com]

I read somewhere that since we no longer demonize left-handedness, it is actually making a comeback. There have always been left-handers, but it was considered an evil sign for so long that the skill was surpressed. I am 41 and I even remember my teacher changing my writing somehow. My dh has always thought I had left-handed tendencies.

 

I have one of each and my brother has 2 out of 3 that are left-handed.

 

Go lefties!

 

Holly

[Book Crazy]

My son is a lefty. Dh and I not.

 

My husbands brother and sister are left handed. None of their children are left handed.

 

My grandad and a cousin are left handed. None of their children are left handed.

 

 

I think that it must be some kind of recessive gene. My dh has another son and he is not left handed. It know that I do some things that left handed people do. I wear my watch on my right hand, I have the hardest time using a tin opener, I pour jugs/bottle with my left hand.

 

It must just be the right combination of my genes and dh that made our son a lefty.

[nutmeg]

dh and dd12 are righties, dd10 and myself are lefties.

 

Within my own family, all the females for 3 generations are left-handed, with the exception of my firstborn.

[Tracey in TX]

2 lefties

2 righties

1 ambidextrous (but he's left footed)

 

Dh is a leftie--I am a rightie.

However, 3/4 of grandparents are lefties. Pretty high percentage.

[JudoMom]

2 lefties

2 righties

1 ambidextrous (but he's left footed)

 

Dh is a leftie--I am a rightie.

However, 3/4 of grandparents are lefties. Pretty high percentage.

 

Your ambidextrous one--how is he with directional things (right/left, in/out, etc)? Ds7 (the one who informed me that he simply switches hands when his left gets tired) has difficulty with directions and since the hand switching has come up it's made me wonder if they are related. He still has a lot of issues with letter/number reversals, he's been known to write in mirror image, and in Judo and piano he really has to think to get his hands/legs/arms to move in the correct direction (for example, he had trouble learning which way to move his foot to make a circle away from his body).

[Lorna in the boonies]

Within my own family, all the females for 3 generations are left-handed, with the exception of my firstborn.

 

It's this way in my family, too, except it's the males.

 

My son, my brother, my father, all of my paternal uncles, and all of my paternal male cousins are left-handed, as was my grandfather. I know it's just a weird coincidence, but that's the way it worked out.

 

None of the females are lefties, but I have a lot of things I do left-handed (like cartwheels).

 

My dh is right-handed -- in keeping with my family trend, my son is left-handed and my daughters are right-handed.

[Cindy in FL.]

My 11 yo ds is ambidextrous.

 

Lefthanded: writes, eats, bats, plays golf

 

Righthanded: throws, plays tennis

 

He doesn't seem to have a problem with directions or writing letters backwards, though.

 

Cindy

[Storm Bay]

My ds is a lefty right down the line in everything so far except cutting with scissors.

My 10 yo is a righty, but not extremely strongly so.

My 13 yo is a very strong righty in everything so far except throwing a ball.

I'm ambidextrous in most things, better with my left in some things, better with my right in some things.

My birth brother is a lefty in writing, a righty in sports.

My birth sister is a righty.

My paternal grandfather was considered completely ambidextrous, although some say that that's impossible.

 

As for percentages, they're just averages, so a family like the OP can have a large number, of course. Kind of fun, isn't it? Personally, I always wanted to have at least one lefty as a child because I think it's fun to be different, but I've met some lefties who find it inconvenient.

[Maria from IN]

"Then my dad said, oh yeah, Aunt (his sister) was left-handed, but that was when they tried to change lefties to righties, for whatever reason. So I talked to my aunt, she said she can't write well with her left OR her right now, and it was always frustrating for her! Glad they don't do that anymore, at least I hope they don't!"

 

Unfortunately, they still do this. My son throws and eats with his left hand, and really has to concentrate to kick a ball with his right foot. The eye doctor says he is left eye dominant, and he would write and color and paint with both hands--whenever he got tired, he would just switch.

 

Then came preschool. To "graduate" from the program, they had to write their name legibly so they could apply their names to all that was produced from the kindergarten cut-and-paste oblivion they put the kids through here. I told the teacher three times in the year and a half he was there that I was aware of what was going on and that he is the product of a right handed daddy and left handed mommy and I didn't want him pushed. She agreed each time, but secretly pushed him to his right hand, and several months later when we were doing kindergarten his writing was very shaky and several letters were still backwards. Once I tried to convince him to switch to his left, which I knew would be much steadier given what I knew about him, and he started to cry and said, "But Mrs. N. said if I ever do it again with my other hand I would mess it all up."

 

That was when I decided we were homeschooling for good.:cursing:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dh - left-handed (some in his family are, and some aren't)

Me - right-handed

 

ds10 - right-handed

dd6 - left-handed. BTW - she had a Leonard Da Vinci thing going for awhile - she would write completely backward - the letters were reversed and she wrote from left to right (she hardly ever does that anymore.) I thought I'd have trouble teaching her to grip her pencil but she had no trouble at all.

[lynn]

My FIL is lefty. All his kids are Right handed. My 2 older boys are lefties boy #3 is right handed and dd who is 2.5 tends to be lefty. STrange....

[6packofun]

I'd be interested to see a poll about this. :) Supposedly it's close to a 50-50 split between righties and lefties, but I know in the past children in schools were encouraged to switch to their right hand if they could.

 

We have 6 children, and if our last little one here turns out to be left-handed as I think he is, we'll have 3 righties and 3 lefties. Dh and I are both right-handed. :p

[Mrs Mungo]

My son (and youngest) is a leftie and all the boys in my mom's family are left-handed.

[Bev in B'ville]

but no one else in my family is. I grew up in the south where in the 1st grade my teacher use to beat my knuckles on my left hand every time I did anything left-handed (reach, try to write, eat, etc.) My mother finally put her foot down when I came home with bloody knuckles.

 

Any who, just an interesting tidbit here, both John McCain and Barack Obama are lefties, as was Bill Clinton.

 

Bev

[TXMomof4]

2 of 3 in my family are left handed. My brother and myself - my dad is also.

 

None of my kids are.

[rockermom]

Dss (7) writes with his left hand but throws, bats, eats, etc. with his right.

 

I know it's way too early, but ds (nearly a year old) has always favored his left. I keep telling DH that this may change back and forth before he settles.. but he keeps dreaming of a left-handed starter for the Cubs.

 

...men... :tongue_smilie:

[mcconnellboys]

Don't know how common it is for siblings, as I only had one, but I am left handed. The degree of left-handedness will vary greatly from one lefty to another. We're now officially called "non-right dominant" or some such, which basically means that most of us are more or less ambidextrous regarding all the little doings of daily life. So one lefty may seem almost totally left dependent, and another may do nothing but write left-handed, doing everything else in life right-handed.....

[Wendi]

In my family, my mom and I are lefties (and have excellent penmanship, TYVM), and my dad and brother are righties.

 

I married a rightie, and I don't think any of dh's siblings are lefties, either. Our ds is a rightie.

 

When I was in school, they never made me try to switch hands, but they did insist we were supposed to hold our paper at a different angle (I never did), and they gave us lefties special scissors (I never could get comfortable with those; I cut with my right hand with regular scissors).

 

As far as sports go, I throw a baseball just as atrociously with either hand. I'm ambidextrous! :001_smile: I actually use my right hand for a number of things (like cutting with scissors), but only my left hand to write or draw, or to eat.

 

I'm weird.:tongue_smilie:

 

Wendi

[Storm Bay]

When I was in school, they never made me try to switch hands, but they did insist we were supposed to hold our paper at a different angle (I never did), and they gave us lefties special scissors (I never could get comfortable with those; I cut with my right hand with regular scissors).

Wendi

 

Thanks for sharing this. My ds doesn't like to hold is paper at a different angle. I thought kids were supposed to if they were lefties, but didn't think it was a matter to push him on if his writing wasn't any worse. And it wasn't, so he holds it his way. He's the same as you with scissors.

[Kimm in WA]

I was "supposed" to be a lefty but my mom pushed the pencil to the right hand - I'm 40 and it was seen as a disadvantage to be left-handed. I really messed me up, especially in sports. It took me until about 4th grade before I figured out to tell the PE teacher than I was left-handed. They wouldn't let me bat left in baseball because I had to "use the hand (I) wrote with."

 

So, I'm somewhat ambidextrous - I can switch hands on things like cleaning and painting (which comes in handy when painting an upper left corner!) . . . actually, I guess I mostly clean w/ the left hand. Most sports I'm a lefty - kicking, throwing ball (strangely I'd also prefer to catch with the left, making any kind of mitt difficult) . . . but played on the tennis team in jr. high and used my right hand (but had a great backhand).

 

The funny thing is the other day at a church potluck, someone sitting across from me said "I didn't know you were left-handed." I usu. eat right handed but b/c it was something that required cutting and the fork was in my left hand, I ate with the left hand w/o thinking.

 

YES, I'm strange. What makes it difficult is that my youngest of 4 is a lefty. I have to ask one of my boys which is the "right-handed way" and tell her the opposite b/c I can't count on ME knowing right from wrong (or left, as the case may be!).

 

Prob. more than you wanted to know!

Kimm in WA

[JudoMom]

Don't know how common it is for siblings, as I only had one, but I am left handed. The degree of left-handedness will vary greatly from one lefty to another. We're now officially called "non-right dominant" or some such, which basically means that most of us are more or less ambidextrous regarding all the little doings of daily life. So one lefty may seem almost totally left dependent, and another may do nothing but write left-handed, doing everything else in life right-handed.....

 

Interesting...I wonder how often it works in reverse? I wonder how many right-handers write with their right hand and do other things left handed.

[Gwen in VA]

My parents were VERY unusual -- since I was pretty ambidextrous as a kid they "encouraged" me to be a lefty!

 

So I write and eat lefty...

 

I could NEVER EVER do sports as a kid. I never ever made that bat contact the ball. I could not get the tennis racket to make contact with the ball. Then in shear frustration my husband-to-be suggested that maybe I should try holding the racket with my right hand. Guess what -- I can actually hit a ball when playing righty!

 

So I guess I am a confused righty who does many things lefty!

 

The funny thing is that when I learn a new skill (like crocheting) I need to decide whether I want to do it righty or lefty -- how confusing!

[Qs3]

Dh and I are both lefties. All 3 of our dc are right handed. I was sure that at least one would be left handed. I guess it's the luck of the draw!

 

Dh writes with his paper sideways. I never could get the hang of writing with the paper that way. I remember the whole experience of writing being awkward in school. I couldn't write in a spiral binder, or any binder, without taking the paper out first. I would also smear the writing as my hand went along. The teacher made me put a seperate piece of paper under my hand, to cover up what I'd already written, so as not to smear the whole page! It's even strange today to write checks! I have to sign the check first, and then start at the top and work my way down, otherwise my signature gets smeared.

[Osaubi]

When I was in school, they never made me try to switch hands, but they did insist we were supposed to hold our paper at a different angle (I never did), and they gave us lefties special scissors (I never could get comfortable with those; I cut with my right hand with regular scissors).

 

Wendi

 

Same with me! I was supposed to use lefty scissors, but they never cut anything. I had to switch to right handed scissors so I could cut stuff out in Kindergarten. I do not hold my paper at an angle or hook my hand as I have seen some lefties do.

 

I am the only lefty in the family. I married a righter, and all my kids are righters. No pattern here!:tongue_smilie:

[Happy]

Interesting...I wonder how often it works in reverse? I wonder how many right-handers write with their right hand and do other things left handed.

 

Me.

 

My mom was left handed and I have many leftie tendencies, although I write with my right.

 

In sports, I am left-footed and I can shoot left handed better than right.

 

As a photographer I was left eye dominant using that eye to focus with.

 

From my mom I learned to hang clothes left handed, something which dh couldn't understand and didn't much care for. And I iron left handed even though I'm using my right hand. Learning to write with my left while wearing a cast on my right was easy.

 

In a homeschool meeting once the lady presenting about brain function insisted to me that left eye dominants should convert fully to right eye dominant. I really disagree with that. I'm a highly creative person who's made a living in a creative field. I think being able to access and use both sides of my brain has helped in that endeavor.

 

Interesting thread.

[AussieInWyoming]

My Dad is for the most part right handed (left handed at golf)

My Mum is a true leftie, as are my two sisters

My brother is right handed

 

Me...hmmm, I write with my left hand (but can write quite neatly with my right), I throw with my left but bat with right (except for snooker and table tennis where I need to use my left hand :confused1:). Oh, and since marrying my dh I have found out that I shoot a rifle with my left hand, but shoot a pistol with my right hand. LOL

 

Elaine

[Sasharowan]

Both of my older boys are lefties, my girl is a righty, the 2yo, who knows. My mom and her younger brother are lefties and the other three are righties.

[gardenschooler]

I'm left-handed (dominantly so), but none of my kids are. My dad was left-handed (or rather, ambidextrous after having his knuckles beaten in school).

 

I don't have a problem using a can opener, or using regular scissors in my left hand. I do have trouble telling my left from my right, and learning things that require me to watch someone else (like dances). I can't flip it around in my head.

[Storm Bay]

My parents were VERY unusual -- since I was pretty ambidextrous as a kid they "encouraged" me to be a lefty!

 

So I write and eat lefty...

 

I could NEVER EVER do sports as a kid. I never ever made that bat contact the ball. I could not get the tennis racket to make contact with the ball. Then in shear frustration my husband-to-be suggested that maybe I should try holding the racket with my right hand. Guess what -- I can actually hit a ball when playing righty!

 

So I guess I am a confused righty who does many things lefty!

 

The funny thing is that when I learn a new skill (like crocheting) I need to decide whether I want to do it righty or lefty -- how confusing!

 

No, you simply have mixed dominance. I was horrible at archery as a child. Tried it again last year and was horrible. Switched to doing it left handed, and, once he told me which eye to close (I do not have a dominant eye) I was much, much better. I'm more accurate left handed, but stronger right handed. Some things I have to do left handed, some right handed. Some it doesn't matter. I definitely have mixed dominance.

 

However, my sister insists that you can always tell the dominant hand by which hand you use in the bathroom unless you're Muslim or of any group where the right hand is the hand of blessing and the left hand the hand of cursing. I don't know if there have been any studies done to prove this or not.

[Storm Bay]

I do have trouble telling my left from my right, and learning things that require me to watch someone else (like dances). I can't flip it around in my head.

 

My mother is a rightie, and she's like that. I have no troubles at all with this; I'm one of those who finds that their right and left sides just feel different. I can also read a map that isn't going the same direction I am, and most women can't. I just figure I'm a bit odd that way.

[mcconnellboys]

Apparently, from things I've read over the years, it can happen that way with them, too, but is not as common as it is for those who are non-right dominant....