My fellow lefties...do you get left and right mixed up?
Posted by AintNobody-@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 85 comments
I'm bringing this up here because I think we were among the last for whom school would try to teach us to be right-handed. It certainly did not work for me, so now I still have practically no coordination. I'm like 40% ambidextrous.
I still get left and right mixed up because in school or in sports or whatever I'd have to flip the instructions whenever it was like "now take your right hand and..." So 'right' became 'correct' which was my left. And now in my mid-40s I can't tell left from right unless I hold my hands up, thumbs out, and look for which one makes an L.
Stock_Currency@reddit
I write with my left but I do almost everything else with my right. Baseball is weird, I bat left but I throw right.
callsignmario@reddit
In a similar sense, I was i the military, fired rifles left-handed, but handguns right-handed. Left eye dominant, so even firing handguns, I hold it to the left of my body to aim usi g my left eye.
Stock_Currency@reddit
The only time I've ever held a gun was when I played Duck Hunt and other shooting games like that. I don't understand left/right eye dominate. All I can tell you is a shut my right eye when firing. And another thing that's weird is, I keep trigger discipline when I'm playing those games.
callsignmario@reddit
If you close your right eye, it's a safe bet you're left eye dominant. Do you hold it left or right handed?
Here is a good way to check, try the thing where it mentions making a triangle with your two hands and look at a point between your index fingers and thumbs, then close one eye - did you lose sight of that point, then close the other eye.
https://savagearms.com/blog/post/how-to-determine-eye-dominance-and-deal-with-cross-dominance
Stock_Currency@reddit
I took the zapper controller and my right hand is on the grip and my right index finger is pulling the trigger.
icepickmethod@reddit
Left handed, right eye dominant, I shoot exactly the same with either hand. Except my usp compact didn't like being shot left-handed, it would stovepipe randomly from my odd lefty wrist motion. Never had that problem with any other gun though.
achtungbitte@reddit
borrowing a friends snes helped me learn.
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
Oh, because of the trigger buttons?
achtungbitte@reddit
the "shoulder buttons" on the controller, L and R.
just playing anything that required me to follow instructions that said "press L and..." hammered it into me.
even now, 30 years later, if I try to visualise the concept of "left and right" I see my hands holding a snes controller"
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
It became second nature to me on that particular controller too but once game controllers started having four top buttons it adds like a microsecond of thought to it.
achtungbitte@reddit
you misunderstood me: I meant that using the snes controller taught me which hand was the left one, and which was the right one =)
UnwillingHummingbird@reddit
I'm right handed, but I use left handed mouse due to an injury in my right hand that makes mouse use uncomfortable. I've often thought about the fact that I still say "right click" to refer to using the secondary button to bring up a context menu, even though for me it's technically a left click now. People just understand that's what "right click" means, so that's what I say.
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
I used to use a left handed mouse but I never swapped the buttons. And ironically i developed a wrist injury and needed to switch to a rightie mouse. For a couple weeks it felt like I was using my foot as I had nearly no fine control, but I got acclimated fairly quickly.
UnwillingHummingbird@reddit
Yeah, it took me a couple of weeks to get used to it as well, but the lack of pain in my hand made for an immediate improvement. For the most part, I'm completely adapted to it now, except there are occasional mornings when I wake up and my left hand is like "mouse? what's a mouse?" for about the first 10 minutes, lol.
Farahild@reddit
No but also my school never tried to mix them up. That's some fifties kind of shit ;)
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
Pure barbarism!
Kind_Literature_5409@reddit
Me too!!! šš¼
sweetnsalty24@reddit
I was able to let my lefty flag fly. However, in kindergarten, there was a parent teacher conference regarding my poor use of scissors. Turns out I needed ambidextrous or lefty scissors too (shocker).
Murgatroyd314@reddit
As a right-hander, I had the exact opposite issue leading to the same parent-teacher conference. I was the smallest kid in class, and not pushy, so by the time I got to the board with all the scissors, all that was left was a new-looking pair of lefty scissors and a couple of almost-broken right-handed ones, and I would always sensibly take the ones in good condition.
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
Ah yes, the lefty scissor ceremony. "don't anybody touch Nobody's green handled scissors!"
emcee_pee_pants@reddit
So I didnāt have anyone try to make me right handed but Iām in a similar boat. It has to be genetic because my kid is very similar. I write left handed, use a fork left handed, and a kitchen knife when prepping left handed. Every thing else I do right handed. Bat, throw, shoot (bow and guns), even wrestle the camp that way. The only thing I can float back and forth on is my lead hand boxing. It would probably make me a formidable opponent if i wanted to get punched for a living.
Mountain_Mama_3@reddit
I write and eat left handed. I do everything else right handed. I am the worst at giving directions.
Not_a_werecat@reddit
Right handed, but I have trouble with left and right too. It never hard coded in my brain because it seems so arbitrary. Left and right aren't hard directions/points like north-south. Left and right changes relative to your body. Seems so useless.
sorrymizzjackson@reddit
Yep. Itās awful.
Babyspiker@reddit
No. But I wish they would have trusted us enough to not get those green, short, rounded tip scissors.
Like, was I going to stab myself in the eye because I was a lefty?
Durakus@reddit
40% ambidextrous. That has a term. Cross dominant.
I am cross dominant. I write and illustrate with my left. But throw and catch better with my right. I also tend to eat with my left and only can use chopsticks with my left. Clicking my fingers is also easier with my left. But when I try to do neutral tasks. My body wonāt know which hand it wants to use.
But no, never get my left and right mixed up.
icepickmethod@reddit
Cutting a steak, which hand does what? After passing the utensils back and forth a couple times i realize it doesn't matter. Neither feels correct, but also not incorrect.
mtb0022@reddit
Lefty here. I thought schools quit trying to teach right handedness long before Xennials. Or at least my teachers let the lefties do our own thing. Maybe itās regional (I grew up in the US Midwest). But I have no trouble finding my left, itās the hand with the eternal writing callouses on it.
Kit_starshadow@reddit
Iām a lefty with a 13 year old lefty and I had to have a stern chat with his prek teacher who kept putting the crayon and pencil in his right hand to teach him to write his name. The child had been strongly left handed since 9 months old. I was pretty ticked.
Happy_Confection90@reddit
My first grade teacher got to meet with my parents and the principal over trying to force me to use my right hand. She had a cute saying and everything, "we write with our right," for when she'd take pencils and scissors out of my left hand and put them in my right.
After that meeting she wasn't allowed to say/do that crap anymore.
erinhannon321@reddit
I grew up in the Midwest too and my younger sister born in ā84 definitely didnāt have anyone trying to make her switch hands. She had all the left hand things, scissors, a ruler that said something about being a lefty, etc.
Midnight_Marshmallo@reddit
When I was learning to write in kindergarten they were teaching everyone to use their right hand. I kept switching back and forth because left felt correct but the teacher tried to make me use my right. I told my Mom about it and the next day she walked me in and told the teacher I was probably left handed and to knock it off. I have an aunt and an uncle who are left handed so it wasn't a surprise to Mom that I turned out a lefty.
Hi-Scan-Pro@reddit
My boy writes with his right hand because they taught it that way in school. He's ten, and his wiring is terrible. I'm a lefty, and so is literally every male on my dad's side, and most women. We have a disproportionately high number of lefties. My boy is harder headed than I am so of course he won't try with his left, but instead gets poor marks in the school that created this.Ā
Midnight_Marshmallo@reddit
I'm sorry your son is struggling. Maybe make a game out of trying to get him to use his left? Like teaching him mirror writing with both hands at the same time? It plain sucks when teachers do this kind of thing to kids.
PopsiclesForChickens@reddit
My grandpa was made to use his right hand. But not my dad and certainly not me.
mauvareen@reddit
Born in 78, my first grade teacher who was insanely abusive and mean forced me. I honestly can't write properly with either hand, but I am ambidextrous for just about everything to this day.
GenXChefVeg@reddit
My husband is a lefty, and had a lot of trouble with "Lefty Lucy, Righty Tighty" yesterday while we were fixing the toilet. I guess this explains it. Thank you!
DadNerdAtHome@reddit
I remember this being a thing in preschool/kindergarten. Once I hit an actual grade there were always one or two green scissors around. And even though there should be 10% of us around I know I was the only lefty in my class until I moved
Substantial_Win8350@reddit
Not a lefty, but I too have to look at my hands to check my left and right. āL means Left!ā
n33dwat3r@reddit
No my body has quirks on both sides that I associate with left and right so if I ever have to think about it it's just like "my left side has these moles on the arm."
BoogieBeats88@reddit
Iām a weirdo ambi too. Physical I have no trouble telling which from which, but which word is a 50/50. My wife just has me point for the turns when Iām navigating in the car haha.
While I was not explicitly discouraged from using my left, my kinder garden teacher could not compute me wanting to use both hands so I got lots of sublet nudges to use my right. Being in a catholic family didnāt help either. Better than my mom who had her left hand tied behind her back. Iām a carpenter now and am super thankful I can use both hands well.
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
That's a better description of my "problem" than simply saying I don't know my right from my left. Like, obviously I do. I know the escape key is in the upper left hand of the keyboard. But in the moment, on the spot, I have to think about it, thus the "correct hand" thing I initially mentioned, but I also use driver side/passenger side outside of the context of a car, or clockwise/counterclockwise for screws. I mean, I don't know about you, but righty tighty lefty loosey never made sense to me. Depending on perspective, tighty and loosey are simultaneously right and left, because it's a circle with no defined start point.
Ya know, I'm starting to think this thing is deeper than just being taught how to write and bat backwards. lol.
BoogieBeats88@reddit
We think alike. Clockwise and Counter Clockwise is a much more accurate description. Many carpenters I know refuse to measure to the 1/16th of an inch, and instead use 1/8 heavy or light. I never really got it.
I think I have a little bit of dyslexia fwiw. Never bad enough to warrant a diagnosis, but Iāll sometimes flip digits like 57 vs 75, or start words in the middle then circle back to the front. Dunno if that is why Iām goofing up left and right.
Sorta like teaching algebra before basic geometry, using which hand one writes with as the definition of a word is sorta backwards.
I appreciate the musing. There arenāt many people who would understand or care enough to have the conversation!
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
I do the same thing with numbers. Reading has never been issue, though I think my social media-addled brain has a diminished attention span so I kinda stop "taking in" what I'm reading at a certain point.
And yeah, this is a fun thing to think about. People are pretty cool on this group. A low percentage of "um actually" responses. :)
robotjunction@reddit
This is crazy. I am a lefty and have to think about left vs right- it doesnāt come naturally to me.
SmittyComic@reddit
when starting school, they put me in an advanced class and none of the desks were left-handed. So, it was just easier to learn to write right-handed. then when playing any sport being able to throw with both hands didn't help learning right from left. Was so scared that people would think I was stupid because I couldn't remember.
took till I was attacked and bit by a dog at 6 years old on my right arm to remember it. would even stop to raise my right arm up to look at it to remember THIS arm was my right arm.
will joke with people that i just learned to live in the 'right-mans' world.
epidemicsaints@reddit
It is just a brain thing, probably a very mild processing disorder.
I am not a lefty and my brain also refuses to learn this as a constant fact of nature.
I did web design and had to put post it notes on my monitor with an L and R because I got sick of how much time I spent calculating.
Rin_thepixie@reddit
I have dyslexia and I get left and right confused. I'm right-handed.
BoogieBeats88@reddit
This a brilliantly simple solution. Kudos!
Mel_Bonis@reddit
Lefty here, and yes, my recall for which hand is which is less automatic for me than average. I learned to write with my left hand with no harassment, so I have only my own weird brain wiring to blame! I got myself sorted after learning to play the piano. Left = Low (-pitched notes).
My orientation to cardinal directions is also not great, and I feel that these things are related in terms of my perception/processing.
everybodys_lost@reddit
Lefty here - my school didn't care what hand I used but my mom sure did! she forced me to write in a notebook every night with my right hand. I am also, not ambidextrous but I think there's another term for it, but basically I do different tasks with different hands.
Write? left Throw/Catch? right Brush teeth? left Slice veggies? right use tweezers or nail clippers? left use a screwdriver? right
I don't know why I'm the way I am lol
Happy_Confection90@reddit
I'm left-handed, and I haven't mixed up left and right since I was at most six or seven years old.
Both of my parents were left-handed, too. Dad never seemed to mix up left and right, either.
My mom, however, mixed them up until the day she died.
Due-Style302@reddit
Yup I end up voting wrong every timeš
xxorangeonatoothpick@reddit
Side questionādid you ever use a left handed notebook in school? Did they exist back then?
(I have four kidsāone righty and three lefties.)
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
Never used one, but I would use spiral notebooks backwards until I had a hardass fifth grade teacher who required that you use a composition notebook in a very specific way for math. That wasn't so bad because the spiral didn't get in the way but after that I just got used to using all notebooks the 'right' way.
intransit412@reddit
I think you have a condition to be honest. I have to think about which direction is which sometimes but at no point was āgo rightā about using the ācorrectā hand. Right is right. Left is left. No flipping of the instruction is needed.Ā
EnvironmentalPack451@reddit
In gym class, you will be holding the bat or racket or whatever in the opposite hand from everyone else.
I took an orchestral conducting class in college where i pretended to be right-handed to avoid the extra mental load of switching instructions. When the instructor found out, he made me switch and immediately said that i was much better when leading with my left hand.
intransit412@reddit
This makes more sense to me. I didn't consider baseball. For some reason my thinking went to basketball plays.
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
It's more about using my hands rather than which direction to move. Like your coach is teaching you how to shoot a free throw, right hand under the ball, left hand on the side, etc. You have to turn those things around in your head; I didn't mean to say that I was taught that the right/correct thing, it just became a habit in my imagination or something, like correct hand under the ball, other hand on the side, etc.
Boostbluefl5@reddit
No.
Natural_Ad_1717@reddit
Lefty here... never really confused the two. My parents were pretty conservative, and I was always like naw
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
I like the cut of your jib. But do you have to use left handed scissors to cut said jib?
Suspicious-Block-614@reddit
Super lefty here. I get them mixed up quite a bit especially under pressure, but was compensated with an absolutely MILITARY GRADE internal compass.
I can even feel north in my dreams, which are made up hybrid landscapes my brain put together.
AintNobody-@reddit (OP)
That is wild. I have no internal compass at all. And no sense of direction. Like I know in my forebrain or whatever that when you turn right from Road 1 to Road 2, on the return trip you will turn left from Road 2 back to Road 1. But in practice it's like you've put me on stage in front of a million people and asked me to calculate pi to a thousand digits.
Professional_Pea1621@reddit
I'm right-handed, but I suck at remembering which one is which. I would guess most of the time. I didn't drive until my 20s, and after that, it got better. One thing that helped was that I got a scar on my left hand, and I look at it to confirm.
TurangaLeela78@reddit
No one tried to change me, but they did my mom and maybe my older brother. But I still ended up somewhat ambidextrous just out of necessity/convenience I guess.
theshub@reddit
Iām a lefty and do many things right handed but am not ambidextrous. I read somewhere that indicates a confused and inefficient mind, and thatās pretty spot on for me.
blackhawksq@reddit
As a righty, I also have look for the "L" and often say "turn left, no no I mean right" when giving directions.
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
Thatās what I do, I used to have to hold my hands up when I was younger. Now I donāt usually need to think about it, but Sometimes I still glance down at my hands to check. Itās kind of embarrassing to have a masters degree but something simple holds me up every once in a while. I guess we all have our talents though lol, I do so many complicated stuff things on a regular basis without thinking about it at all.
Kreatorkind@reddit
I'm naturally left handed. They "encouraged me" to use my right hand for everything. Oddly, my older brother was (and is) left handed too and they let him be. Even though we went to the same school.
Sea-Breaz@reddit
I literally just commented about this same situation! My older sibling was allowed to be left handed but I wasnāt. Itās messed up my brain ever since! Although the only thing I do do right handed, is write.
Kreatorkind@reddit
Well, in the long run, it benefits me as a guitar player. All the hard stuff is on the left hand when you play a right handed guitar.
411592@reddit
I donāt
SuperKamiGuru824@reddit
I was supposed to be left handed but pre school teachers made me right. I'm also about 40% ambidextrous. To this day I still get right and left confused and have to use the 'L' method with my hands, ha ha!
cmgww@reddit
Try doing everything right handed except throwing a baseball or football. Itās pretty crazy I donāt know why it happened to me
RogueAOV@reddit
My ex wife was a leftie, she had a scar on her left arm and she would refer to that whenever she needed to know her left from right.
It was quite charming how randomly her arms would shoot out straight and she would quickly glance at each arm before proceeding with whatever.
Sea-Breaz@reddit
This makes so much sense to me! My older sibling is a leftie. Apparently, so was I until I was ~~forced~~ encouraged to write with my right hand. I do everything else left handed. I have always struggled with telling between left and right. Years ago, My driving instructor told me I had left/right dyslexia and apparently you can have that put in your drivers license (in the UK).
balthazar_blue@reddit
I can't say I really get things mixed up. I've even gotten pretty good at which way to turn a nut or bolt when it's facing away from me, and giving other people instructions based on their left or right.
I consider myself a lefty and do most fine motor tasks with my left hand. But I'm fairly ambidextrous, and do most gross motor skills with my right hand. So most sport things I do right handed (or right footed), except for ping pong. And I use my left hand for writing, drawing, painting, and food prep, but since there were never enough lefty scissors at school I do that right handed.
My maternal grandmother (b. 1930) started left handed but was forced to switch in school. There was even a time she was ambidextrous and could write with both hands equally well. She had a story about getting in trouble at school for something and being forced to write lines on the chalkboard, and using both hands so she could get done faster, and getting in trouble for that and having to write more lines with only her right hand.
My mom is the opposite of me: fine motor skills right handed, gross left handed.
My son is a lefty as well.
BlueProcess@reddit
I got switched, but I don't have trouble telling left from right. What's kind of interesting is when I learn something new I sometimes still do it "backwards". Like I when I started skating, I taught myself so I skated goofy foot until someone pointed it out to me. When I did martial arts I tended to be a little more ambidextrous instead of favoring my right side as some people do. Switching to a left handed stance messes up some people. I draw circles the left handed way and so on.
EnvironmentalPack451@reddit
Yup, right here! eeer, left here!
thebaensidhe@reddit
Yes. All the damn time. And I'm freaking 44 lol.
PilotC150@reddit
I was never made to use my right hand to do anything. I was fortunately, though, that while I naturally wrote with my left hand (and still do), I'm naturally right hand dominant in everything else. Golfing, hitting, throwing, etc.
The only problem I had was writing and having teachers not really know how to give tips about how to best write without smearing everything with the back of your left hand as you write.
And no, I don't have any problems knowing left and right.
swinging-in-the-rain@reddit
Ambidextrous here. I switch hands in pickleball, double forehand is lethal.
BowserPong11@reddit
The only person I know who gets left and right confused is my left handed stepmother, so you may be onto something.
pct2daextreme@reddit
Not really, but always being taught right handed first really screwed up my penmanship. Otherwise hobbies I usually have to choose my right or left hand. I play guitar-right, tennis - left, shooting - right (for now).