"Drawing Hands" by M.C. Escher (via Wikipedia)
In spite of what the title of this post might suggest, today we are not going to delve into politics. Nope. Instead, I want to get back to the most elementary left and right in our lives — our hands.
Are you a lefty or a righty?
Here in Jenworld, we are a 75/25% split in favor of righties. On an oddly related note, we are also a 75/25% split in favor of September birthdays, with the lone lefty having a birthday in May. I don’t believe there is a correlation, but mention it just because.
I’m not at all surprised that I’m the only lefty in my household, as I’m used to being in the minority. Most of the time, I don’t think about it at all. But then I’ll observe one of my three resident loved ones doing something like tying their shoes and I’ll think, “Wow, how is that even possible the way they’re doing it?” Seriously, if you asked me to show you how my people tie their shoes, I don’t think there’s any way I could replicate it.
Because I’m a total Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, I generally assume that the way I tie my shoes is the correct way; however, the fact is, I remember that my parents (both righties) were unable to teach me how to tie my shoes and eventually my one left-handed aunt sat me down and worked with me until I figured it out. Thirty years later, I didn’t even bother trying to teach that one to my girls — I outsourced it to Pete, who handled it.
In the kitchen, we’ve had to make a few accommodations so that the primary meal-preparer (me) has tools that I can actually use. For example, we don’t even have this kind of vegetable peeler, as I can’t use them without mangling vegetables and also my fingers. Even if said tools are labeled as capable of being used by all kinds of people, I can assure you that someone in Vegetable Peeler Marketingland is LIE. ING. Instead, we use this kind and I am able to peel cucumbers, carrots, and whatnot successfully and without needing stitches afterward.
On a related note, someone gave my family a bow knife a few years ago and it’s sitting unused in a drawer because I cannot use the damn thing. I tried and the result was a loaf of bread that looked like it had been the victim of tragic chainsaw accident. Crumbs everywhere and nary a slice of bread in sight.
In spite of being very left-handed, I am completely and totally right-handed in other ways. Cutting with scissors, for example, is done with my right hand. In fact, when I’ve tried to use scissors made for lefties, I can’t even do it. I also use a computer mouse with my right hand and my left hand gets none of that action. In fact, I tried switching hands this morning (this is actually what made me think of this post) and I could barely get logged in and busy checking Facebook. I can’t even imagine the impossibility of navigating Pinterest if left (ha) to my left hand.
So what about the rest of you peeps? Who’s a lefty and who’s a righty and how lefty/righty are you or are you somewhat ambidextrous?
scissors
computer mouse
teaching the girls to tie their shoes
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Y’know, I have never even heard of a bow knife? Is it supposed to work better for cutting bread?
The threesome that lives here are all rightys. My dad is mostly a righty, but like you he does some things with the other hand –he will wipe down counters with his left hand. The lack of coordination in my left hand really does amaze me some times.
All righties here. My mom & brother are lefties.
I, too, am the only lefty in the house. I’m lefty with everything. I taught my kids how to tie their shoes the way my fight-handed mother taught me: facing them, as if you’re looking in a mirror.
I’m left handed, but I knit, iron, play hockey and racket sports as a right handed person. This has actually been a serious issue for me because nursing has all kinds of hand-dominated skills and I had difficulty figuring out which hand worked best for things like inserting foleys or suctioning trachs, and since these are sterile procedures where one hand is “dirty” and the other is sterile, once you have committed to a hand, you have to stick to it, or else get a whole new kit and start from scratch. It seems I favor the left hand for procedures like this, but more than once I’ve gotten stuck starting out with the wrong hand.
Nate is a lefty and I am ambidextrous but I should practice with my left hand more. No word yet on what Toby is – he uses his hands equally, so he may be ambi, but he may also just be behind on fine motor (well, he IS that, so who knows.)
My mother and brother were both left-handed. None of it passed down to my 6 kids, however. There was a long article on twins in the New Yorker years ago; in it, one theory suggested for left-handedness is that a left-handed person is the surviving fetus from an identical-twin pregnancy (often, one of the twins miscarries so early, one doesn’t even know). The theory stems from the fact that identical twins are mirror-image, essentially.
I once tried to teach a southpaw how to knit, but I had to give up.
My husband is a lefty but he loves that flimsy little peeler. I’m a righty and prefer the peeler you use.
I have a lefty brother and married a lefty; and one of my three kids is a lefty. All of them do many “handed” things, like scissors or pitching, using their right paw, probably because there was no available accommodation and they had no choice. Now that they don’t force those devil kids to switch and they’ve come to see how many people really are left-handers, things may be [slowly] improving. Small comfort if you’re a lefty struggling to make life work now. No wonder [statistics say] they have shorter life-spans!
“. . . analysis of career choices with a higher than expected rate of left-handers includes professional baseball players, architects, lawyers, musicians—and the list goes on.”
Like Arte Johnson used to say, “Very Interesting…” and if you wanna read more look at this website: http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=research_lefthandedness
Husband is the only lefty, the other three of us are righties. Husband is VERY lefty – we have about a dozen left-handed guitars in the house and Husband has his own special left-handed pens that none of the rest of us can use! We also had to make sure that things like kettles and garden tools like hedge trimmers were ambidextrous. Or ambi-sinistrous as Husband insists on saying.
Pens can be right or left handed?! What’s different about them?
right handed, September birthday here. What I’m curious about, is when you go to these places, which way do you start, or sit on?
1) grocery store—I HAVE TO enter on the right hand door (usually, at least in CA, the supermarkets have a door to enter on both sides) and make my circuit of shopping, from right to left. I’ve forced myself to switch it up sometimes, and I feel very uncomfortable, and usually, forget items.
2) church sitting—for the past 20 years, I sit on the right hand side. Near the back (introvert that I am) not in the same seat, or even the same row, but in a general area on the right hand side of our church. Again, you can enter on either right, or left side of the sanctuary, aisles on both sides.
3) theater sitting–here is where I am very strange in my brain-ed-ness…I HAVE to sit on the left side of any theater. Up high, but that’s a visual thing. Can’t sit in the middle section, or the right hand side. Weird. But this is the only venue this happens at.
Anyone else?
My mom is a lefty and only one of my sibs followed suit. I grew up learning some things “backward” from her. Took me years to realize the ironing board sould be turned the other way.
I am slighty ambidextrous – although not with writing so much anymore. Maintained that through college before I just didn’t have the time/patience. Mom was quite sure I would be a lefty until I went to kindergarten and they basically forced me to be righty. So far hubby and the Boy are righty (although the boy shows signs of lefty in certain things), and girl is a mystery. Being 3 she does everything with either hand depending on her mood.
I do force myself to brush my teeth left-handed once or twice a week. I read somewhere doing mundane tasks with your “wrong” hand helps stimulate your brain. *shrug* No matter if it makes me smarter, it’s fun.
I am pretty much ambidextrous except I can barely write with my left hand. I don’t get the peeler. Ours is just like the stainless one except with a cushioned handle and it is perfectly symmetrical. Why wouldn’t it work for a lefty?
You’re a lefty! I find lefties fascinating, and I don’t really know why. I’m a decided righty. As I age and carpals tunnel and arthritis creeps, I’ve been trying to switch off, left and right, as I do day to day things, dishes, digging, anything physical.
Try to enjoy the storm.
Jennyu
My mom would have been a left except for the fact that she got her left hand smacked every time she used it.
I use the same potato peeler you do and it’s better even for a righty.
My Dad was a lefty, but he was made to use his right hand in school. Both my brothers are lefties but my Mum and I are both righties (as is my husband). I think my 19 month old is going to be a leftie – he switches to his left for fine motor activites. I think I’d like him to be a leftie just because it will obviously have come from my Dad and brothers…don’t quite know how I’ll teach him to tie his shoelaces etc though…maybe Velcro till college??!
I’m a righty, D’s ambidexterous, and to some degree, so are the boys. For example, T and G bat left, but throw right. D had a tough time teaching B to hit, until I suggested he MIGHT hit right, sure enough, he does, so then G began hitting right, too, and now is a switch hitter. T writes right but golfs left. In short, all the men in this house are weird.
I cut bread with a wooden bread slicer (holds the bread in position, guide the knife down the slats) — works great! But my husband and I use it in totally different ways and we are both righties.
My only lefty is the one with a September birthday. Both of my brothers are lefties but one is impressively ambidextrous.
I’ve been trying to teach myself to play computer solitaire with my left hand out of fear that I’ve developing carpel tunnel in my right arm. It’s possible, but awfully slow going.
I’m a lefty here – my uncle was one too. I play golf/cricket right handed but tennis left. Everything else is left!
Regarding left handed pens, I can fully relate. I went to a school where we were only allowed to write in ink, not biro. So all my booked were hideously smudged from my hand brushing over the top of the wet ink. I ended up with a writing style that involved curling my hand into arthritic inducing positions and turning my book sideways. Then they invented hideously expensive quick drying ink pens and if someone ‘borrowed’ one of these there was hell to pay! I still have disgusting handwriting – thank god for the advent of the keyboard.