<p>5 of 6 current or most recent US Presidents are/were lefties. The right-handed one (yes the son) somehow is different.</p>
<p>My sister is left handed and I have spent years trying to write left handed becuase I was so amazed that people could do it. I suck at it but I did realize it must be as easy as doing it right handed, if you are left handed. </p>
<p>Of course, I always toldher she was a freak becuase she was left handed and that must have messed her up as a kid. She says it didn’t but who knows. Kids can be mean.</p>
<p>I’m the only lefty in my family. I do everything with my left hand, just about. And I still have trouble with scissors sometimes!</p>
<p>I was 7 before I learned how to tie my shoes. I don’t know if that was because of being left-handed, or just general incompetence at fine motor tasks (not that different from my son’s when he was young, and he’s right-handed.)</p>
<p>I always get ink on the side of my left hand when I write, probably because I don’t do the curling around, upside down technique.</p>
<p>Driving was never a problem.</p>
<p>I thought everybody knew that lefties are smarter than other people – I mean, no question about it!</p>
<p>There has been some research indicating that left handed people are more likely to be G, L, or T. I was once with a random group of about 12 trans women, and out of curiosity asked how many were left handed; the answer was 8.</p>
<p>I am a leftie, right eye dominant. Bowl with my right, play tennis with my left. Play guitar right handed. Not L, G or T.</p>
<p>Oh, and I can only put on makeup with my left hand.</p>
<p>And have never been able to put nail polish on myself, because the fine motor control in my right hand is so poor that the fingernails on my left hand look like they were done by a 5-year old.</p>
<p>I don’t think even lefties realize how things could be different until you are given the option of thinking about doing things another way. ( Forgive my digression, but I think it is not unlike being a minority, who doesn’t realize how different perspective can be…). At almost 50, I realized a new perspective. Hot and cold water, without two separate faucets. With a kitchen remodel, I was given new options. I didn’t quite get it, but went with the left handed one and it works!. At my office, there is NO hot water ( from the left handed spigot), only cold from the right. I find myself reaching under the running water with my left hand, to turn it off…Also, “signing” on those electronic pads, with the pen tethered on the left side I think…it’s not long enough, if you write with your left hand. Honestly, you don’t even GET it , until you try it another way.</p>
<p>I’d also like to draw everyone’s attention to the previous leftie threads, under “similar threads”, below.</p>
<p>I wish colleges considered lefties a minority group…then I’d have a better shot</p>
<p>I’m a lefty. I have never been able to use left handed scissors. i thinks that I trained myself early to use right handed ones out of “shear” desperation. I teach elementary school art and have never had a child ask for lefty scissors.</p>
<p>^ But if you gave them one? They’d probably be like "WHATTTT! Is THIS what it’s like for everybody else? Why didn’t anybody tell me?!?</p>
<p>So I mentioned earlier today how difficult it is for me to use regular scissors… Well as I was taping some ankles today, I needed to cut elastikon which is some strong, stretchy tape. Just imagine trying to cut with regular scissors on a material that is already hard enough. The girl was probably thinking “this guy has no clue what he’s doing.”</p>
<p>Thanks much for answering the driving question. Now that won’t keep me awake for 10 years! Great thread, I’m learning a lot and it will help me parent our very special southpaw. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am exactly the reverse! In fact, I use my left hand for any task requiring strength and my right hand for anything requiring dexterity. Have two kids, one righty and one lefty.</p>
<p>We’re all lefty in my family except for my D. We joked that she’d grow up to be a Republican banker, but no, she’s as oddball as the rest of us.</p>
<p>Scissors–when I was four, my dad noticed i was having trouble cutting stuff. So he ordered left-handed scissors. When they came, I threw a tantrum–I didn’t need “different” scissors. But when he finally got me to use them, I cut up every bit of paper in front of me, including a bunch of napkins. He sent them to school with me, but when I was transfered to a new school, they were lost. Most school lefty scissors aren’t really–they change the handles but not the blades. So I learned to cut righty, and now that’s the only thing I do right-handed.</p>
<p>Woody–how well I remember the countless holiday dinners where some helpful aunt would make sure that lil Garland sat at the end on the left, so she didn’t knock elbows with everyone else!</p>
<p>So glad I married a fellow lefty–I don’t feel “different” anymore.:)</p>
<p>I wonder this because my nephew trains as a boxer (age 15). Any advantages or disadvantages there, in terms of opponents (he’s a rightie)? I watch his videos and see all that “left hook, right hook” commotion.</p>
<p>Boxing announcers always mention that righties have difficulty boxing lefties. The main reason is they don’t face them as often. Some righties will use lefties as sparring partners before facing a southpaw in the ring.</p>
<p>
Tell us! Tell us! </p>
<p>Like cbreeze’s family, my brother and I are the two left-handed children of right-handed parents. He’s more strongly left-handed than I am – I can’t use lefty scissors, and I pipet right-handed. </p>
<p>I would very much appreciate p3t’s dinner seating approach. I have permanently claimed the seat at the head of our lab’s conference table, because I’m very self-conscious about bumping elbows with people.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>No, that would be 5 of 7. The recent presidential lefties are Ford, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, And Obama. Carter and Bush 2 are right handed.</p>
<p>So I posted above about using different hands for different tasks, writing with left, throwing with right (or both, i.e. makeup). Then people started talking about scissors. They have never been a problem for me; guess I’m right-handed for scissor use.</p>
<p>When I was in grad school I once looked around the room for an exam and noticed that a large percentage of us were writing with our left hands. </p>
<p>I feel like the odd man (woman) out because I’m neither here nor there.</p>
<p>In my medical school, there were more left handed students, than left handed desks.</p>
<p>I’m mostly left handed. My parents knew when I was a baby because if they tried to put a spoon in my right hand I just moved it to my left. I write, bat, bowl, use scissors, eat, play tennis left handed but I do throw right. I can do a lot of fine motor stuff with both hands. My water polo coach was disappointed because she wanted a lefty shooter. I think it was because I broke my left elbow when I was in 6th grade which was when I decided to learn to throw. </p>
<p>Oh and my handwriting is not good. I use the rotate the paper method which people in school made fun of.</p>