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Another product of the early 70's school system here having had my left-handedness knocked out of me. I'm now "confused". I write, hold a knife & fork and use a mouse with my right hand. Throwing, kicking and other sporty stuff (leading foot) is with the left.
You all have varying degree's of Cross-dominance.
I can perform certain tasks with my right hand and others with my left, but can also perform some equally with both hands.
I hold the fork and write with my write hand, use a mouse with both, aim with my left eye, use tools/delicate work with both hands and used both feet equally when playing football.
One of the downsides apparently that cross-dominance can manifest itself is by making people look a little clumsy, particularly when sport is involved, which might explain my riding sometimes.(Thats my excuse) 😉
No one here so far is completely ambidextrous which is actually a rare occurrence in people.
Being an old git I’m a product of the 60s educations system, in my primary school I was encouraged to use my right hand, not only because this was the “right” thing to do, but we had no left hand teachers. I was taught to write by a neighbour who himself was left handed. Throughout school I was constantly told off for having my books on an angle, as I tend to write down the page rather then across. We had to use ink pens (yes with in wells) so whatever I wrote would just be smudged by my hand & little finger.
As for discrimination other have commented that we live in a right hand world, and while I’ve never seen any signs saying “No left handers” the fact is that as a distinct group very few concessions are made for us, through social conditioning we are “forced” to go against our intuition. I am unable to use left handed implements (although my left handed ruler is great), because that how I‘ve been taught/ indoctrinated often from a very early age. Still and tries to make us conform to right handedness, thus is discriminatory. Society tries to ‘cure’ us of our ’infliction’ and the language used to describe left handed people is generally negative, and at times offensives .In the great scheme of things most of this is minor annoyance and as such is likely to continue
I can't think of any situation where I use my right over the left...
Edit. Actually the only thing I can think of is right foot forward when dowhilling/descending as it feels right as I board right foot first and push with the more powerful left
As with most people above, I do things with both hands, but each task has its preferred hand. Eating fork-left. Football - more power on the right, more control on the left. Tools - right for power and accuracy. Fiddling with nuts and bolts - generally right for accuracy and strength, but can move to left fairly happily ifit's awkward to get with the right. Always write with the right, left just feels wrong. My chocolate foot is my right on a bike, but on a kiteboard I kite left-foot-forward, possibly because my right controls the edging of the board a little more positively.
Writing = left hand
Fork = left hand
Spoon = left hand
Tennis racket = right hand
Sewing with needle = right hand
Using a hammer = either hand
Cutting bread or using a saw = right hand
Being given a dessert that needs to be eaten with both a fork and a spoon is a problem for me as I can only really hold one at a time with any comfort, as left handed with both.
When I was at school there was a lad who's handwriting was so bad it even made mine look neat , for a joke when we had 5 minutes left at the end of the lesson the teacher suggested that everyone should try to write with their opposite hand. This lads writing went from barely legible drunken spider to nearly the neatest in the class !
I think too many teachers just assumed that everyone was right handed and automatically forced pens into that hand . The lad in question never started using his left hand as by the time he tried it he was too used to using the right.
No one here so far is completely ambidextrous which is actually a rare occurrence in people.
I certainly display 'cross-dominance' (a phrase I've never heard of), and have often wondered if I might qualify as genuinely ambidextrous.
How would I know if I am?
I can write with either hand, but prefer left, and do everything else right-handed. It makes learning sport confusing, because I write left-handed but instinctively pick up bats with my right hand.
Can't hit anything with it though; I hate all bat-and-ball type games. Could this be why?
Society tries to ‘cure’ us of our ’infliction’ and the language used to describe left handed people is generally negative, and at times offensives .In the great scheme of things most of this is minor annoyance and as such is likely to continue
Isn't left-handedness supposed to be a marker for creativity?
Yes – large numbers of creative people are left handed as are those in the ‘caring professions” – worked on award once were all the qualified nurses were left handed – it was a great place to work every thing in the office and ‘clinic’ room was in the right place & the right way round – It drove all the right handed people mad
My mum is left-handed and so am I. She uses cutlery left-handed but always set mine out right-handed so this is how I've always eaten (fork in left hand). It makes it easier in restaurants and stuff.
I do pretty much everything with my left hand but shoot right handed (right eye dominant).
At home computer I use the mouse in my left hand. At work I use the mouse in my right hand so I can write at the same time.
I can confuse meetings by attacking the white board with a marker in each hand: one black, one red.