Visit our online shop for your left-handed productsLefty Disadvantages
- Things Lefties Are maybe Not So Good At!
There are some things that we find more difficult because of our
brain wiring and others that are more practical issues.
Things left-handers find difficult
| Telephone boxes – receiver and coin slot on right | TV & Hi Fi controls |
| Record Player Arms | Writing |
| Scissors | Trousers with one back pocket |
| Trouser Zips | Polo (left-handed players not allowed!) |
| Hockey (left hand players not allowed in Field Hockey - Ice hockey is OK and there have been some very successful left-handed Ice Hockey players) |
Tying shoe laces/ties |
| Writing in binders/files | Cheque book stubs |
| Pens on chains in Banks | Cash dispensing machines |
| Ticker barriers on underground (ticket has to be put in with right hand) |
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| Computer number. keypads (on right) | Dining in restaurants (bump elbows with R/H diners) |
Medical equipment
Club member Michael is a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician and tells us he has problems with right-handed equipment…
“My manual sphyg (blood-pressure cuff) can only be inflated with your right hand. (There are ambidextrous ones, but they are more expensive.) And I had problems learning to fit a cervical (neck) collar, until I discovered that they can only be pushed across with the right hand, not pulled with the left. Obviously, it would be completely impractical to equip hospitals and ambulances with both left and right handed equipment, but I can dream”
Handshakes?
It is traditional and socially acceptable in most countries for a handshake to be made with the right hand. If a lefty tries to use the more natural left hand this causes confusion and makes people uncomfortable
We understand that a left-handed handshake is used as a recognition device by some secret societies and has “sinister”
connotations (we can’t win can we?).
If anyone knows more about this or has any thoughts, please add a comment below.
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If a lefty initiates a handshake, they should offer their left hand. Right handed people should learn what it feels like to do something that wasn’t designed for them.
I am a lefty, but I have been able to adapt to just about anything right handed, especially the mouse, all’s it take is a little practice and determination, more natural lefty’s are ambidextrous, than natural right handed people, give it a try, and don’t ever give up!
What really annoys me is when I carefully move up to three glasses from the right to the left side of my place setting in a restaurant and when the waiter refills my glass, he/she refills it and MOVES my glass to the right side. How annoying is that?!
I always thought the cutting buns problem was me!
My biggest gripe has to be scissors. I know there are left-handed ones but I know of no Ned Flanders store in town. Cutting hurts my hand to do.
As for using a computer mouse and shaking hands, I guess I am just so used to right-handers that it feels natural, but I get a cramp in my hands if I use a mouse for more than fifteen minutes straight (like playing Minecraft). Otherwise I just use the pad on my laptop.
Yes! The computer mouse is a real pet peeve of mine. I always make sure to replace a righties mouse after using their computers (usually I have just fixed something they have broken) but if they use my computer and the mouse is on the left? They let me know about it, like its my fault I didn’t think of them when I set the computer.
The bread knife thing is interesting, I’ve always been made fun of because of how I cut bread (thin at the top, thick at the bottom) Now I have a defense. And watches, oh my gosh don’t get me started. I was given an awesome wind up watch a few years ago and winding it up while it was on my wrist? No way!
Watch pockets in jeans are a real nuisance, they are always on the right side and my right hand is too stupid to use it with any confidence. I could go on for hours… cameras, my digital alarm clock (when I set it my hand is over the display and kind of need to contort my wrist to see what I’m doing) and can openers and …
My top annoyances: the computer mouse. It’s always on the wrong side. Especially at the public library, where the cord is permanently stuck on the RIGHT side and can’t be moved to the left.
Eating in a restaurant/formal setting is probably my worst complaint. How embarrassing to sit at a formal dinner, only to drink out of someone else’s glass, or to continually bump the elbow of the person sitting on my left, or to (dreaded fear) upset my plate due to using my clumsier right hand to pass food, etc. If people wanted to make my life easier, they’d put me on the far left side of the table – but of course that never happens.
Cameras are another thing I’d rather avoid than use and look clumsy/stupid. Ever use the camera with your left eye and try to press the shutter release with your LEFT hand, only to have the owner of the camera give you that unbelieving look?
Yeah. It’s annoying.
But you know? Being left-handed makes us tougher, lol! With all the hard knocks we survive …
I insist on having my pc mouse on the left – really annoys me when others use my desk at work & don’t replace it on my correct side. When using someone else’s computer, I make a point of always swapping others’ mice (mouse? Meeces?) back to the right when I’m done. However, they still have a right moan when they use my desk…now they know how us ‘deformees’ feel. Bah! *shakes left fist in the air*
And another thing…! Why didn’t anyone tell me to restring my guitar as a southpaw when I was a kid? Totally entrenched in the upside down, Hendrix-style now. Perhaps in hand position only, unfortunately!
Cameras always seem to have the shutter release on the wrong side. Only ambidextrous camera (well camcorder) I’ve seen is the Samsung QB10.
The subtlest one is the bread knife. Its blade is serrated on one side only. When we lefties cut a loaf it all goes badly wrong with diagonal slices or slices that are fatter at the bottom.
The next one is wrist watches. The start/stop/lap buttons on my stopwatch are on the wrong side. Wearing it on the right wrist just wasn’t ever thought of by the designer (the buttons could be configurable).
And finally computer mice. I’ve always used mine with the primary buttons the right-handed way and the mouse mat on the right of the keyboard. That was to avoid confusing my right-handed colleagues. The habit stuck until the days of the laptop with a trackpoint and a touchpad. But they are still predominantly right handed things.