Left-handers of the world unite!
I am left-handed. When I was little, teachers criticised me for my not-very-neat cutting out. But no-one suggested trying left-handed scissors, so I just had to learn to use right-handed scissors.
When I was a teenager, my hand and wrist would ache from writing essays and taking notes in class. Sometimes I would strap my wrist in crepe bandage to help support it. Exams were a particular struggle – I just couldn’t write quickly enough. Part of the reason I ended up doing physics at university was that there were fewer essays involved in comparison to other subjects.
I later found out that writing left-handed is physically harder to do because you have to push the pen across the page. I also discovered that there are pens which are specifically designed for left-handers and that these pens make it easier for me to write, although I still write more slowly than most other people I know.
When I met my husband, he told me that he was pretty sure that he was originally left-handed, but as a schoolchild in the late 1960s he was completely discouraged from using his left hand.
So when I saw my little boy struggling to use right-handed scissors in his left hand I wondered where to go to get the correct scissors. I asked some other parents and a few people suggested anythinglefthanded.co.uk. I ordered the left-handed pencil and left-handed scissors shown in the photo above and they have been absolutely great.
The website also has lots of useful advice and videos for left-handed folk and parents and teachers. I hope that my son’s journey through life as a left-hander in a right-handed world will be easier than mine.
I have always been ambidextrous. When I was in infant school I could switch hands happily when it came to using a pencil to write, if the other hand got tired.
Unfortunately my teachers believed that it was wrong to use the left hand, and I had it beaten out of me with a slap on the hand with a ruler every time I switched from my right hand to my left!
I’m still mostly left-handed, but I write and sew with my right hand because I can no longer remember how to do either of those things with the hand that comes most natural to me.
A slap with a ruler seems a bit severe! No wonder you ended up writing with your right hand.
I was forced to try doing things with my right hand when my left arm was in plaster last year. I can just about write my initials with my right hand, and that’s about it.
Fantastic, thanks for this. I’m right-handed, as is DH, eldest DD and the grandparents (although maybe my dad was originally left handed but he was a child in the 1940′s so even worse!) But DD2 is very much lefthanded, it was evident from as early as 10 months old and now she’s three, she’s definitely left-handed. I’m realising how hard it is via her – I’ve tried using her left-handed scissors and it’s so hard so I can imagine how it is the other way round! DD1 could write her name and draw pictures at three, now I might be able to help DD2 by supplying pens to suit her
Let me know how DD2 gets on. The anythinglefthanded.co.uk website has loads of advice as well items designed for left-handers.
Thank you so much for this post. Little Miss C is just two, but we’re convinced that she is left handed from the way that she does everything and holds her spoon and a crayon. Neither Mr C or I are so it’s useful to know what equipment is out there to make things easier for her.
I’m so pleased that you’ve found it helpful.
oooh thanks for the link, my daughter is left handed!
happy to help!