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Lefties of Tildes: what are some items where the left handed version is most necessary?
Despite everyone else in the family being right handed, my son is a leftie! Very excited for this development, but as we're nearing school age at 5, I'm wondering about the things he uses daily.
Seeing him cutting with right handed scissors, I'm getting him some left handed ones. What are other common items I may not be considering that are just so much easier to use the left handed version of?
I would recommend not getting him left handed scissors. Unless he's very left-handed - which it's probably too early to tell because all five year olds are pretty shit at using scissors - learning to use right handed ones takes a bit longer, but it'll mean he can use all the scissors in future. I never see left-handed scissors in the wild and I can't use them anyway.
I'm not very left handed but I cannot use a fountain pen. Other than that, it's not that big of a deal in my day to day life. I use tape measures upside down but again, it makes more sense to learn to do that because otherwise you can't use all the tape measures (also try getting a good quality metric-only left-handed tape measure!).
Oh, spiral notebooks and ring binders. Upside down and back to front - so the spiral binding/rings are on the right and I don't have to reach over them. Again, no need for special ones.
People used to buy me special "leftie" versions of things and I invariably found them awkward because I'd already learned how to manage with the right handed versions. My dad is much more left-handed than me and he says the same.
I strongly disagree on the scissors. I was really upset as a kid when I couldn't cut anything with the dull school scissors. I did better with even right handed fiskars ones that weren't overused, but trying to use dull right handed scissors on construction paper with your left hand is actual torture.
When I got my first pair of actual left handed scissors as an adult, it was a marvel.
@hobofarmer fyi
I'm a leftie, and I've been fine with right-handed scissors all my life, at least as long as they grip comfortably in the left hand. The ones that are super-ergonomically designed to be held in a right hand are awful, but I think most scissors these days are ok to be held in either.
That being said, I've already raised hell at work when the only pair of scissors we've got that work well for me disappeared from my desk, so...
I'm with you. I was well into adulthood before I ever got a pair of left-handed scissors. It took a little getting used to, but now that I'm acclimated to them, using right-handed scissors is slightly more difficult. I CAN use them, but definitely prefer my left-handed ones.
As has already been mentioned in this thread, most lefties live their entire life operating in a right-handed world just fine without any special accommodations.
Lefties are about twice as likely to be injured in accidents, not exactly "just fine" in my opinion.
Best gift is a left handed pen/pencil. By that I mean the text on the pen/pencil is correct way up and readable to the user when held in the left hand.
A joke, of course. But shows how I generally agree that we lefties will always have to adapt and cope to the right handed world.
On scissors: I would only say that it's necessary for precision cutting or ergonomic handles.
Where sighting the cut line not being obscured by the top blade might be important.
Where the handle is shaped to be more comfortable, at the expense of using it in the other hand.
Possibly because of physical differences between my hands, I find all scissors less comfortable/a bit painful to use with my right hand.
My experience is the same as yours. I found it much more practical to adapt to using the right-handed versions of things.
It's probably more normal to use a spiral notebook back to front and upside down,, but I've been using the left side normally, and then on the pages where the spiral are in the way, I wrote on the page upside down.
It just helps with chronological order for me. Even if I know the whole thing is backwards, it feels wrong to me going forward to find information from the past.
i agree with this. teach him to use scissors in his right hand. scissors do not function properly in the wrong hand due to the way the blades cross - the pressure from your thumb forces the top blade away from the center, so paper will just crinkle instead of being cut. not being able to use right handed ones would be a huge disadvantage because nobody has them
fortunately the action of using scissors is not very complicated, so it’s relatively easy to get used to using your non-dominant hand (compared to writing, eg)
For what it's worth, I use right handed scissors in my left hand just fine and always have. I don't know if I hold them differently or what, it's just how I've always done it.
I am much closer to ambidextrous than left-handed but I can't use scissors in my right hand about as much as I can't write with my right hand (I can barely write with my left so...)
Just sitting here now slicing up some paper, I tilt the scissors slightly to the right so I can see the top blade. I don't have issues with the blades separating or anything.
the trick is to pull the thumb handle inward and push away with the finger handle- the opposite of how it would be with proper handed scissors. as long as the blades exert some pressure on each other, it should cut. it’s not impossible, it’s just so much easier with the correct hand because the action is more natural
i started using scissors in my left hand (i vaguely remember having a pair of left handed scissors for a while), but i switched hands, probably out of frustration, since at school the ones getting passed around were always right handed
That's what I was going to say. Handle-molding aside, the only issue is what direction of tension/pressure you're putting on the blades: whichever hand you're using, the blades should be pushed together by the tension rather than apart.
I also use righty scissors in my left hand, and I'd say there's one additional limitation aside from getting the tension correct:
Being able to easily see how the scissors are lined up with where you want to cut, because of the blade orientation.
It's a nonissue when roughly cutting stuff, but can definitely be annoying when I'm trying to line up cuts precisely.
Good point! Hadn't thought of that.
Thank you everyone for your responses - I don't want to reply to each comment so I'm putting this here. I'm very grateful for the suggestions and reassurance that everything will be ok and he'll figure it out in our right handed world. I'll keep reading responses as they come in!
I’m a left handed writer who does many other things right handed. My recommendation is to not rush out and buy a bunch of left handed items for your son.
Present the standard right handed version of things to your son, but let him use it in the way that is most comfortable to him. If he really can’t find a comfortable way to use some object, go and buy the left handed version, but don’t jump straight to the leftie version.
The world is designed for right handed people in ways that is not apparent unless you are left handed. The world generally does not accommodate left handedness, so lefties have to adapt to a right handed world. If you teach only on left handed objects, your son will one day be in a situation where he has to use a tool designed for righties and struggle much more than he needs to.
Slight aside. Many years ago, I had a bad industrial accident that left me unable to use my right hand for most of a year. (I'm right-handed.) It took me a couple of months to feel fully comfortable with all the fine motor skills of daily life as a forced lefty, but it has been surprisingly useful to be ambidextrous for the past decade+, and frankly a lot less work than I expected to become so. I've since encouraged a younger, left-handed kiddo in my extended family to see being practiced with both hands as a superpower, and something cool to be proud of, instead of feeling frustrated when he has to use his right hand for things, and he's since done an even better job than I have at becoming truly ambidextrous. We even have our own secret two-handed handshake to celebrate it. :D
YMMV, of course, but that's been my experience with things.
I've mostly just adapted to using tools made for right handed over time, like scissors, computer mouse. I actually tried left handed scissors a few years ago and they just didn't work for me because they wouldn't line up with where I wanted to cut, if that makes sense? I suppose whatever you pick sticking to it makes things easier.
A couple recommendations however:
Even if you are right-handed (like me), these gloves are really great for being able to write/draw on a tablet without getting smudges on the screen or getting palm interference. I use mine all the time.
I'm fairly leftie and I agree with some commenters that a lot of those gadgets aren't necessary. I do have some left-handed scissors, and I did always dislike those right-handed desks. The worst thing was field hockey in gym class, where they never had a stick for me, but thank god the days of gym class are long over. I use either hand for my computer mouse, which I think has helped with ambidexterity. (One day I discovered I was unthinkingly using a screwdriver with my right hand.)
My advice is not to make it a big deal. When I was little and learning to knit in a group, the teachers said, "Oh, left-handed, you're going to find this VERY DIFFICULT. We just don't know how to teach you!" I learned just fine later on and I knit like anyone else. Knitted like a fiend for decades, in fact.
In some ways, I think being at least comfortable with righty things can be an asset just for the flexibility to use readily available items. But, I also get that some people might have an easier time being ambi, and others may be more firmly handed. I guess, it might be worth observing to see what he seems to struggle with?
I will say, scissors are the number one righty-thing I remember as a kid having a properly tough time with, though you've got that covered. Second was the desks with an arm rest at school, I never got a leftie one and was always annoyed.
For notebooks, I much prefer ones that flip vertically, so the spine is neither on the left nor right. Circumvents that argument altogether.
I guess 5 is too young for pens, but no smudge pens was a big game-changer for me. Suddenly I could also use nice-flowing gel pens without smudging! It might be worth looking for less smudgy pencils?
Not left handed, but I've heard a lot that one of the worst things is computer mice. Nice ergonomic ones (like the Logitech Max Master I use at work) tend to only be right handed, and the best case scenario is a mostly-ambidextrous one, though extra buttons still often end up on the wrong side.
Funny enough, as a leftie, Im not very adept at all with swapping a mouse to my left hand. I learned to use one so strictly with my right hand, that's what's natural feeling for me.
Same. As a child, the home computer was setup right handed and I didn't question the need to or know how to change the configuration.
Iirc QWERTY layout biases in favour of reach from the left hand, so it's likely an advantage.
I don't actually use a mouse anymore because MacBook trackpad* & gestures are so nice to use. And its placement is fairly hand agnostic.
*compared to (Dell) laptops I previously had, running Windows<10/Ubuntu/Fedora.
MacBook trackpads continue to be as far ahead of the rest of the industry as they were in 2008.
Yeahhh but it's still a trackpad innit
Gotta disagree with you there. The Magic Trackpad on macOS is, in my opinion, better than a mouse. I say that as someone who still uses mice and has some really good mice. macOS is just so well integrated that it makes it a pleasure to use. It isn’t as good in windows, but it is still quite good (with a third party driver). I worked in the office for two years with just a left handed Magic Trackpad (I am right handed), and I was happy with the decision. The reason I started was because of the beginning of some RSI issues. It took a while to learn and get good, but now I could never go back. I’ll still use a mouse for FPS gaming, but for general computing, a trackpad is way better. Also the setup from left to right of trackpad, keyboard, mouse is pretty good. Having some sort of pointing device on each side of the keyboard is underrated.
My only trackpad complaint is that sometimes I’m trying to use the trackpad to copy a large body of text and I run out of trackpad before I can select what I want.
On many applications I can just click with one finger and use another to move the cursor, but some applications require the finger that clicks to also move the cursor.
I can’t speak for windows (although I think the precision touchpad drivers should do this too), but on macOS you can leave one finger clicked and scroll with the other hand. So the clicking finger still does the cursor movement, but you just scroll the area to whatever you want to scroll.
To be honest though, I very rarely need to do that. Apple trackpads are huge, as all trackpads should be. So I can easily move my cursor across the entire screen without lifting, even on the super high resolution displays that macOS prefers.
click, mouse move, shift+click.
As a large-handed fellow, trackpads (and laptop keyboards in general) are a nightmare.
I recently got a new MacBook (replacing my 2008 model — it had a good run, but was trying to melt through my hands just basic web browsing) and the one thing I dislike about it is the ... dead zone? type behaviour on the built in trackpad.
(I’m used to a high DPI mouse on my windows gaming machine with zero mouse acceleration, so I’m quite used to a tiny movement and the ability to move the mouse one pixel at a time if I need it.)
Sometimes I’ll want to move the cursor just a little bit, but need to swipe my finger across the trackpad quite a distance before the cursor starts moving. I’ve already noticed that I compensate by doing a little swirl every time I want to start moving the cursor, but I definitely want to break that habit before it sets in.
I assume that completely removing this behaviour would make for a much worse experience, so I probably just want to reduce be sensitivity or something. Do you know if there’s a setting for it? The settings application these days is very different to what I’m used to on a Mac.
I would love to help you, but I have honestly no idea what that could be. It definitely doesn’t happen on my current laptop (M3 Max MacBook Pro), and I don’t remember it happening on my previous M1 air either. I can quite easily move single pixels with small movements without issue. macOS uses some fancy scaling so they aren’t the actual physical pixels of the monitor, but I can easily move just one logical pixel using the trackpad.
Maybe you just aren’t used to mouse acceleration? Acceleration is arguably bad on traditional mouses (I think the hate for it may be overblown, but I don’t fault anyone for turning it off), but for trackpads it’s absolutely essential. I used a Magic Trackpad on windows for years, and it doesn’t have acceleration by default. I spent a lot of my time working with the third party drivers I was using to get the acceleration to match the macOS defaults.
Is it possible that I favor the keyboard because the computer table forced me to use the mouse with my right hand? 🤔
Maybe, but also keyboards > mouse, in general.
Yup same here. I can use a mouse left-handed, probably more easily than someone who is right-handed can. But it doesn't feel natural at all.
Ditto. I can do it if I have to, but I'd rather just move either myself or the mouse so that it can be held in the right hand. That's just... where it goes, as far as I'm concerned.
I bought my partner a Logitech gaming mouse that lets you remove/add the two buttons on either side. Like physically remove them and replace them with a plate.
The only con is that the battery life is terrible, which I'm shocked about since every Logitech device I've owned has sipped batteries and lasted half a year or more.
They probably haven't told you about the secret left handed stash of batteries we all get on birth to make up for it all.
And even if you do find a good left-handed mouse, they don't really make left-handed keyboards. Not a big problem for productivity, but a huge annoyance for playing video games that use WASD for movement.
We have some thick notebooks with metal binding in Brazil that where the bane of my existence. I ended up just writing on loose sheets of paper. Anything with a binding you must write on is awful. So get lefty versions of that.
And the classroom seats with the piece where you put your hand where all right handed! There was always another leftie in class and whoever got there first took the only leftie one.
I don't think I suffered too much otherwise. I use the mouse with the right hand. Maybe I missed on a career as a pro Overwatch player, but I can do it well enough.
What I end up doing with those is starting from the back and upside down. Looks a bit odd, but then the binding is on the right side!
My son is left handed too. The biggest issue we had was handwriting and athletics. Lefties write differently and most teachers don't know how to do it, so go online and look for lecture writing resources. As for athletics, make sure his coaches are aware he is left handed, since he will likely be left footed. That affects how he will learn to do activity's, like shooting a basket ball.
Luckily I'm an early childhood teacher and handwriting is something I've got covered!
It was mentioned elsewhere, any bound notebooks (but specifically those with rings) will be annoying to write in. Because the left-hand needs to deal with the raised part of the binder.
The trick there is to start from the back and upside down. I made a quick photo to illustrate the point, doing it like this lets me write on the thick part of the notebook without having to deal with the rings.
On that note: eye dominance is also a thing.
I have left-eye, left-hand, left-food dominance.
It feels more natural to use a right-hand stance with a cricket bat. I use regular footing with a snowboard.
I have crossed dominance. I'm right eyed (although I used a camera left-eyedly), left handed and right footed.
People used to think this was a bad thing, my mum was advised when I was a little kid that I'd probably have all sorts of balance and co-ordination issues growing up. But it's not. I can juggle while standing on a tightrope. It's not a thing they tell parents about any more.
For school, I hated binders. I found using pocket folders was a much better experience for me - - sure, they don't maintain order as well as a binder does, but writing on paper in a binder is awful left handed, and my papers were constantly ripping out anyway. By the end of the year, the rings would also be bent, making it difficult to turn the pages too
Fuck paper binders, basically
Start from the back, turned upside down, took me ages to figure out but really does make things a lot more convenient.
You've given this suggestion t
whrice, but I don't understand how a normal notebook is any different for a lefty than for a righty. Paper has two sides, unless Tildes communicates between dimensions.Hah, I often only write on one side of the paper (various reasons for that). I also want the notebook under the paper I am writing on. In the default orientation, that means that the metal binders are always in the way. Hence, me turning it like shown in the picture.
But why upside down starting at the end? Why not just start on the back of the first sheet?
I have no good answer to that other than that it effectively comes down to the same thing.
I’m right handed, and I only fill out the right hand side for pretty much all my notebooks unless they’re lay-flat binding. I never really thought much about it until this thread, but yeah all my spiral-bound notebooks tend to cap out at maybe 55% usage before they go on the shelf.
I'm going to mirror the advice of many other here and suggest not going over the top with the left-handed compensation. Cover real "problem" areas, i.e. stuff that is a constant irritation or could affect schooling, but learning to work with right-handed stuff is a very useful skill.
Speaking anecdotally, as a lefty myself, I've found it very useful to have become functionally ambidextrous over the years.
First example that springs to mind is DIY/construction - the ability to stand either-side of what you are working on and use tools in either hand is incredibly useful. Over the years I've been shocked at how limited right-handed friends/relatives/partners are if trying to work on something "from the wrong-side". My ability to grab a hammer/saw/etc in either hand, and even swap if I get tired, has constantly surprised others.
Honestly the one for me apart from scissors was a bread knife. I got one this year and for the first time in my life I can cut a straight slice of bread.
Any single-sided bevel knife will be an issue for lefties. They're pretty rare, but some bread knives and quite a lot of Japanese knives (not Japanese pattern knives like are all over the place these days, but traditionally made knives) have a single sided bevel.
As long as you know to look out for it, it's not a problem. Unless you want to be a sushi chef in which case you're probably going to have to buy a custom grind at great expense.
Agreed, there's an awful lot of serrated or single bevel knives which won't cut straight easily in the left hand. I find this more annoying than using right hand scissors (which I don't find a real issue unless using for long periods) and can definitely recommend double bevelled edges or checking which side the bevel is on when looking for knives.
Talking of using scissors for a long time reminded me of a few others that are a little niche: crimping tools for dupont connectors and RJ45 connectors. Probably not too useful for a 5 year old but one that did bring me joy/less blisters and I was glad I requested from work.
Game characters having the option to be left-handed. Especially in RPG's.
Late on this post but wanted to share my experience as well.
I am a leftie and for me the biggest issue has been not being aware of the fact that things are different for me because I'm left handed.
Maybe I just was a bit dumb, but it took me until I was 15-16 to understand that right handed scissors weren't made for me. I just thought I sucked at using scissors. The right handed ergonomic scissors are a nightmare and I ended up learning to use scissors in a weird uncomfortable motion with my left hand where I squeeze the blades together. Left handed scissors are a magical experience. I wish someone had told me about this when I was a kid.
Also writing. I struggled a lot with keeping up the pace with my classmates, but I also had a slightly unconventional grip. And I struggled with smearing a lot. Only in middle school some other lefties shared their tricks to make writing easier (angling the paper, holding my hand above the text, etc) and life got a lot easier.
Basically, looking back at it I just wish people would have shared these things with me earlier or at least pointed out to me that there are things where I need to figure out alternative solutions. Feeling like I just suck at basic tasks did affect my self esteem.
But, being left handed also has a lot of benefits. Music instruments are an interesting example, I play the right handed versions of instruments but with a left handed approach (for example, playing drums open handed on a right handed kit, or playing bass with more agility on my left hand).
I had similar experiences. One example is that I never learned to tie my shoes correctly. The knot I tie comes undone quite easily. I guess it must be a left-handed version of the standard knot, but I ended up solving the problem long ago by tying the loops to make a sort of double knot, so I never did learn the right way.
Can I suggest learning the Ian Knot? It's relatively hand dominance agnostic and is a quick, sturdy knot that I use in a wide variety of situations.
No worries, head down to your local Leftorium and you’ll be all left!
(Sorry I have nothing of value to add)
Neither do I other than to say that it's comforting being in a thread with so many lefties.
my sister is a lefty. She likes pens that don't smudge like Pentel Energel, Zebra Sarasa gel, and Zebra Sarasa Dry.
here's a decent post for the cursed
Hardcore lefty here. Most things can be adjusted to. Lots of folks here talking about tricks for binders. Just dealt with the discomfort of the rings until discovering that I can take better notes on loose leaf paper.
The only place I really felt meaningfully handicapped was in music. Lefty instruments were more expensive, so I learned guitar and whatnot righty. I got comfortable eventually, but I always wonder how much better I'd be if I could've trained as a lefty. Decades into playing I'm not interested in swapping now, but it might have made a difference.
Sports too. I needed a lefty baseball mitt. No chance of me throwing the ball properly with my right hand. The left handedness was a net positive in baseball and some other sports, but gear is tougher to come by and usually isn't really optional unless you're closer to ambidextrous.
But like most folks here are saying, in 90% of cases, special lefty tools and whatnot are a novelty and aren't necessary.
Honest question about the guitar example: does the “handedness” even matter? I haven’t learned guitar, but it seems to me like it wouldn’t matter what hand is where, except for personal preference. Both hands have to learn to do complicated things. It seems like the left hand (hand on the neck) would be more suited to the dominant hand. Is that not the case?
Snowboarding is roughly split between “regular” and “goofy” stance. The stance a person uses has very little relationship to their dominant foot (statistically). It seems like guitar should be similar in so far as handedness shouldn’t really matter.
I’m not trying to dismiss you or your struggles. This is an honest question and I would love to hear your perspective.
The guitar question was answered above
This may be my ignorance, but are guitars handed? I always felt like they seemed equally easy to hold either way, but I never really learned to play.
Technically yes. The heavier/lower pitch strings are usually supposed to be on top, and lighter strings on the bottom.
huh, TIL
No worries. Yeah they are. Some can be flipped over to rig as lefty but others (especially les paul style single cutaway designs) are pretty fixed in their handedness.
I tried flipping one of my dads guitars to lefty as a kid, but when he saw me preparing to put a hole in the body for a strap holder that came to a stop and I accepted that I'd learn right.
Also you'd have to flip or grind out the nut to avoid gnarly buzz and allow for a halfway decent setup, but my 12 year old self hadn't even gotten that far
I've always wanted to learn guitar as a leftie, despite being right-handed, bc it feels more natural to me somehow. Perhaps a beginner's thing, perhaps an "I did piano so I'm used to most of the finger shenanigans being done with the right hand" thing. So it's good to know potential limitations (though I've got an acoustic now that seems pretty symmetrical on that front)
A leftie party would be pretty good. Apparently the US is incapable.
I’m right handed, but I spent some time learning Spencerian hand/calligraphy. Good calligraphy books teach you how to sit and how to hold your pen, technique that hasn’t been taught widely in American schools for a century. I’ve noticed that lefties tend to seem tortured whenever they write anything by hand. I’d encourage you to see if you can find anyone locally that could work with him to make sure he can write comfortably.