Left-handed or right-handed child?

1. 80

   jacqui2011posted 13 years ago

   Left-handed or right-handed child?
   
   If your toddler showed a preference of using their left hand over their right, would you try and persuade them to change to being right-handed? I have no problem with this at all, but one of my friends will not allow her child to use their left hand at all, although he definitely favours using it.

   replyreport
2. 78

   POWERS1205posted 13 years ago

   Funny thing, my wife and I are observing that behavior in our 18 month old son right now. I think it's facinating because I have 2 other children that did the same thing and still wound up right-handed with no influence at all. I think  would be a shame to stop a child from being left-handed if that was their preference.

   replyreport
3. 90

   Diane Lockridgeposted 13 years ago

   My two oldest kids are right handed, but my youngest is a lefty. I didn't discourage it at all (although I know things would be difficult for him in a right-handed world) but he adjusts fine, uses the mouse in his right hand normally. It's funny, because I encourage him to throw/bat while in the lefty position, but he prefers the right way for sports. My husbands says to just let him decided what's best for him. Sounds good to me.

   replyreport
4. 85

   Deborah-Dianeposted 13 years ago

   I have heard that trying to force a child to be right handed can cause all kinds of problems with hand-writing, motor skills and behavior.  Let nature take its course!

   replyreport
5. 61

   freecampingaussieposted 13 years ago

   Never , there is nothing wrong with being left handed .It causes problems & learning dificulties & is cruel  trying to force a child to use the other hand . I am a left hander ,now 46 & have seen the problems caused at school by people like them.
   I feel sad for that poor child & hope they stop trying to force him now because if they carry on the child will resent them very much later on.

   replyreport
6. 88

   ThePracticalMommyposted 13 years ago

   I thought my son was going to be left-handed because he favored that hand, but he now seems ambidextrous! He is three and uses both hands with ease.
   
   I never tried to persuade him to use his other hand. That is such an old notion to have a right handed child.

   replyreport
7. 60

   Vanessa Andersonposted 13 years ago

   I've let my daughter pick which hand she prefers, and she has ended up being a lefty.  I'm a righty and my husband is ambidextrous.  I'm perfectly fine with her being a lefty, even though I've had people ask me why I haven't corrected her.  My response is always, you can't correct something that's not wrong.

   replyreport
8. 63

   Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

   Handedness is just an individual thing.  In fact, there are people who don't have any "real" handedness.  (I'm one of them.  I write with my left hand but am otherwise right-handed.  Personally, I've always seen it as "Nature's perfect plan" that I write with the hand/arm/side that are my weakest; because the chances of injuring the stronger hand/arm are greater (and that would leave my otherwise un-used left arm/hand for writing).     So 1) I'm happy to write with my left hand, and 2) I would have been happy if my children wrote with their left hand.  As it turns out, all three kids are right-handed.     That's OK.  I love them anyway, and they're all perfectly talented and bright people (so they don't need to feel bad about being right-handed - and neither does that misguided, unfortunate, right-handed friend of yours.       Not everyone ended up with the "Nature's Perfect Plan" when it comes to handedness.      ).

   replyreport
9. 60

   jkselectionsposted 13 years ago

   I have a right handed child and a left handed child.  When my daughter was little I would watch her pick up a crayon with her left hand and at first I thought okay she must just be picking it up wrong or something.  I kept telling her to use her right hand but soon realized she was just more capable with her left hand.  So I simply just let her be herself and she has been fine.  Learning to write cursive was trouble for her because of the way she wants to hold the pencil.  No other problems

   replyreport
10. 86

    wychicposted 13 years ago

    Absolutely not! I am left-handed, and -- despite my issues with finding a good pair of scissors -- I will be eternally grateful that my mom let me grow up being who I am. We strongly suspect my husband was also left-handed, but he was raised by Russian Orthodox Old Believers and so if he was he would have been switched. He is now 51, and uses his right hand for strength and his left for anything that needs fine precision.

    replyreport
11. 85

    Sunshyne1975posted 12 years ago

    I believe let a child use whatever hand they feel comfortable with. I actually think it is interesting to see the personality differences in a right and left handed child. I have 2 right handed and two left handed. In my case the left handed ones have a stronger more stubborn personality.

    replyreport