Lefties of the World Unite!
Friday, August 13, 2010 at 8:40AM 
Did you know today is (Woohoo!) Left-handers’ Day? Here’s a repost of a piece I posted for Left-hander’s Day a couple of years ago. If you insist on new material, try A Salute to Southpaws for Left-Handers’ Day (mental_floss Blog).
Are you a southpaw? I am. Today, August 13th, is Left-Handers’ Day, our day to celebrate our right to be left-handed.
If you’re like me, you’re happy to be left-handed. It’s just one distinction among many, but I’m glad it’s there.
Although, to be truthful, I go through life not thinking much about my left-handedness except when someone hands me a pen across a desk so I can sign something. Reaching out to grab hold with my left hand always makes for an awkward second or two. And then there’s the bank. My bank has little pen stands fastened on the right, which means I have to reach across and bring the pen over to the left, and then write with the pesky pen cord running across my paper. It’s little annoyances like this that remind me that being left-handed does occasionally make a bit of a difference.
From the Left-Handers’ Day page, here’s a list of things that left-handers can find difficult. I’m going to go through the list and comment on whether I have trouble with each item. If you’re left-handed, why don’t you do this, too?
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Crossing other peoples paths/position on pavement. I don’t think I have more trouble with this than everyone else does, but I’m not sure that I’d know if I did.
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Hugging. Hmmm…I will have to admit that I’m an awkward social hugger, but I think that’s more because I’m not much into social hugging in the first place. Stand-offishness would describe my usual attitude to touchy things in public. I’d really rather not, but I am making an effort to become better at these kinds of physical displays of affections because they seem to matter a whole lot to some people I like.
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Taking neighbours drink/bread roll at dining table. This is one mistake I do not make. Hooray for me.
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Direction of work, decorating/painting rooms. Yep, I do everything from left to right. Painting a room, loading a dishwasher, washing counters or walls. Starting on the right would seem oh-so very wrong.
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Being helped to put on a jacket. My husband was left-handed, too, so we were perfectly in-sync when it came to these things. That’s why I married him. Being left-handed meant I was the perfect helper (left-hand woman, perhaps?) on his many projects. I knew instinctively which hand would take the tool I was handing, and he used different hands for different tools in a way that would make sense only to another left-hander. Scissors, for instance, force you to use them right-handed or they don’t cut well. And the guards on many power tools are placed for use with the right hand. When my husband and I worked in the kitchen together, we never got in each other’s way, something I can’t say for the times my daughters and I work together in the kitchen.
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Receiving change. It does confuse people when you hold out your left hand for the coins.
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Putting children’s socks and shoes on. My kids got used to their parents’ backward ways.
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Using your left-hand as a point of reference when giving directions. Well yes, always. Does this make a difference?
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Feeling more comfortable sitting on the left hand side of things. If I can, I always sit on the left side. Being on the right of an auditorium or theatre or church discombobulates me. Is this just a left-handed thing, or do righties feel a sense of unease when they sit on the left side of things?
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Putting belts on upside down. Huh? There’s a right side up on belts?
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Visualise things the opposite way around. I’m not sure. What does this mean, exactly?
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Trouble opening/locking locks. Not that I’ve noticed.
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Work stations flow the opposite way around. Oooh yes! Since both my husband and I were left-handed, the family computers were always set up tilted for a lefty and with the mouse on the left. It’s another one of those parental quirks the children had to get used to. Right now, on my desk computer, the mouse is on the left and I’ve changed the configuration so that the two sides of the mouse are opposite what they were originally. None of my children has ever grown accustomed to that. (Updated Aug 13, 2010 to add that I’ve reconfigured my laptop mousepad as well.)
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Organising files “back to front”. I’m pretty sure I don’t do this, because if I did, I’d probably know what this means.
Did you know that one of the things associated with left-handedness is the direction of the hair whorl on the back of your head? Right-handers tend to have clock-wise whorls and left-handers’ whorls tend to turn counter clock-wise. This is not always the case, mind you, but it occurs frequently enough that the correlation has been noted by researchers into left-handedness.
My whorl turns counter-clockwise. And I’ve noticed that I part my hair on the right side, while most side parters part their hair on the left. The right side is where my hair parts naturally and I assume that’s related to my backwards whorl direction. What about you? Do you fit the pattern or not?
Being left-handed can make writing more complicated. Lefties often write in an awkward (and painfully slow) over-handed way, or make a mess of things by smearing the ink with their hand. Being taught correct left-handed writing technique can prevent some of the leftie problems, but many teachers don’t know how to help little leftie learners. I am thankful that my mother and my first grade teacher both took the time to learn how to teach me to write as a left-hander should.
If you have a left-handed child, here’s a video that will explain some of the problems your left-handed writer might have and show how you can make writing easier for them.
If you’re a leftie, leave a comment to let me know. If you have lefties in your family, I want to know that, too.
Reader Comments (9)
The only thing my two lefties complain about is writing on spiral notebooks. Occasionally we have found lefty notebooks with the spiral on the right but Ben just turned his note book over and started in the back. He also likes to letter with ink, but finds he smears more by dragging his arm over anything that doesn't dry instantly.
Right on! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
I'm a leftie and proud of it. My Grade 2 teacher tried to make me write right-handed but was unsuccessful. My Uncle still has scars on his left hand from the nuns who tried to make him right-handed.
The pen at the end of that video looks very cool (not that I do much handwriting these days)!
I'm a rightie but have two leftie brothers so this was an interesting read.
I'm totally with you on No. 2 and feel so awkward doing the hug thing.
No. 14. I'm a retired secretary so I always put things in a file folder from back to front chronologically. Old in back. New in front. Unless the contents are something that require the "old" to be more easily accessible to the reader than the "new". In that case, you switch to make perusal easier for the user. Confusing. lol
Funny thing, in public, I very seldom notice by anyone's actions whether they are leftie or rightie. It is usually the act of eating or writing that gives me the clue.
So, both you and your husband were left-handed, but none of your children are? Is that usual?
Re: 10 -- I first thought that it might refer to accidentally putting on a belt inside-out. But I don't see how that can have anything to do with handedness. I'm a rightie, and I do it all the time.
Maybe "upside down" is instead someone's way of describing the direction that a person threads the belt (clock-wise vs counter-clockwise? It would feel more natural for a leftie to thread clockwise, and for a rightie to thread counter-clockwise...wouldn't it?
I definitely fit the whorl direction/part-on-right-side pattern. And sitting on the left side of any auditorium feels very unnatural. It puts me as much out of sorts as the opposite does you.
First David,
So, both you and your husband were left-handed, but none of your children are? Is that usual?
They say left-handedness is not hereditary.
Second David,
Maybe "upside down" is instead someone's way of describing the direction that a person threads the belt (clock-wise vs counter-clockwise? It would feel more natural for a leftie to thread clockwise, and for a rightie to thread counter-clockwise...wouldn't it?
Now that you mention it, I think that's exactly what they mean by upside down. I may do that, but I can't tell because I don't know which way is right.
My dad and one of my cousins who I grew up with are lefties. I always remembered how my dad would write in all caps because of the whole smearing issue. He'd also curl his arm and hand all the way around. I remember him telling me a story about how the nuns in his school would smack his hand with a ruler trying to correct him from doing that, but he never got out of that habit.
I can completely relate to going to a certain side of the room. I always go to the right side and I'm right handed. Being on the left side is weird for me. I'm also pretty weird about social hugging too. I don't think that's a left hand right hand thing, just a comfort level thing. The only people who I'm okay with touching me are my close friends and family. Anyone else and I just feel weird. I'd much rather just shake their hand and be done with the whole ordeal.
My daughter is a lefty. She has to be careful where she sits when she eats so she doesn't bump people. She used to do mirror writing all the time when she was little. Most recently I remember her being in a performance when all the kids were to step out and wave and say their names at the end. She was the only one who stepped out with her left foot and waved with her left hand. :)
I've been told I do certain things left-handed. I apparently change diapers like a left-handed person (I want the baby's feet to my left, which seems to be opposite most right-handed people.
I'd never thought about the diaper thing. I always changed my kids' diapers on the floor, feet toward me.