Handedness: What's Yours?

What is Your Handedness?

  • Left Handed, Sinister, Southpaw.

    Votes: 12 24.0%

  • Right Handed, Dexter, Northpaw.

    Votes: 21 42.0%

  • Semi Ambidexterous, Bi-Dexterous, Cross Dominant

    Votes: 17 34.0%

  • Fully Ambidexterous.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    50
pandacracker said:
I started with brushing my teeth and doodling. Moved on to shaving, self abuse and chopsticks
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Not all at once, I hope? I certainly can't top that...

I'd say I'm left-handed, but with a few exceptions. I write and throw with my left hand, and if I tried either with my right, it wouldn't be pretty. I can catch almost equally well with either.

However, it gets more complex... if I was playing cricket, I would bowl left-handed but bat right. I have tried playing golf with left-handed and right-handed clubs, and I'm pretty much equally adept (alright, equally rubbish) either way.

Scissors and knives I can only use in my right hand, likewise a computer mouse. I gratefully gave up nail scissors for clippers years ago, and don't miss the frustration of trying to cut the nails on my right hand!
 
Peripart said:
Not all at once, I hope? I certainly can't top that...

I'd say I'm left-handed, but with a few exceptions. I write and throw with my left hand, and if I tried either with my right, it wouldn't be pretty. I can catch almost equally well with either.

However, it gets more complex... if I was playing cricket, I would bowl left-handed but bat right. I have tried playing golf with left-handed and right-handed clubs, and I'm pretty much equally adept (alright, equally rubbish) either way.

Scissors and knives I can only use in my right hand, likewise a computer mouse. I gratefully gave up nail scissors for clippers years ago, and don't miss the frustration of trying to cut the nails on my right hand!
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Used to do prison visits both for work and for catching up with old friends ;) and would take nail clippers because many people have trouble cutting their right hand nails. Especially the thumb one.

I'd have to clear it with the staff for Chummy to clip their nails in front of them and hand the clippers back.
 
escargot said:
Used to do prison visits both for work and for catching up with old friends ;) and would take nail clippers because many people have trouble cutting their right hand nails. Especially the thumb one.

I'd have to clear it with the staff for Chummy to clip their nails in front of them and hand the clippers back.
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This has just made me think - I don't think I have EVER cut my fingernails. They grow and then split, I've never been able to grow my nails really long - I put it down to either working with animals or typing a lot. But my fingernails are so weak that I can split one opening an envelope or dusting a shelf.

My toenails, on the other hand - bring on the chainsaw!
 
catseye said:
This has just made me think - I don't think I have EVER cut my fingernails. They grow and then split, I've never been able to grow my nails really long - I put it down to either working with animals or typing a lot. But my fingernails are so weak that I can split one opening an envelope or dusting a shelf.

My toenails, on the other hand - bring on the chainsaw!
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I cut my fingernails every day. It helps to stop them splitting.
 
Peripart said:
Not all at once, I hope? I certainly can't top that...

I'd say I'm left-handed, but with a few exceptions. I write and throw with my left hand, and if I tried either with my right, it wouldn't be pretty. I can catch almost equally well with either.

However, it gets more complex... if I was playing cricket, I would bowl left-handed but bat right. I have tried playing golf with left-handed and right-handed clubs, and I'm pretty much equally adept (alright, equally rubbish) either way.

Scissors and knives I can only use in my right hand, likewise a computer mouse. I gratefully gave up nail scissors for clippers years ago, and don't miss the frustration of trying to cut the nails on my right hand!
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Your handedness sounds similar to mine. I haven't tried to switch computer mouse to left hand because, you know, those right handed people. But I don't think I would have a problem using a mouse with either hand.
 
catseye said:
This has just made me think - I don't think I have EVER cut my fingernails. They grow and then split, I've never been able to grow my nails really long - I put it down to either working with animals or typing a lot. But my fingernails are so weak that I can split one opening an envelope or dusting a shelf.

My toenails, on the other hand - bring on the chainsaw!
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My fingernails are kept short, no manicures for me.
Used to clip them but a few years ago I started rasping them with a pedicure file. Works well.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I cut my fingernails every day. It helps to stop them splitting.
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There's nothing really to cut. My nails will split even if they are very short, they just split further down - agony. I hate having really weak nails.
 
catseye said:
There's nothing really to cut. My nails will split even if they are very short, they just split further down - agony. I hate having really weak nails.
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Ouch. False nails might help to strengthen your nails.
Also, food supplements such as Biotin and Perfectil might help a little.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Ouch. False nails might help to strengthen your nails.
Also, food supplements such as Biotin and Perfectil might help a little.
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I tried fake nails once, but all the typing and box opening meant that they fell off or broke. I'm just not meant for nice nails, it's fine.
 
catseye said:
I tried fake nails once, but all the typing and box opening meant that they fell off or broke. I'm just not meant for nice nails, it's fine.
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You could still try the food supplements. You have to use them for at least 6 months to see any noticeable improvement.
Let us know how you get on.
 
catseye said:
There's nothing really to cut. My nails will split even if they are very short, they just split further down - agony. I hate having really weak nails.
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The women's magazines used to advise eating a jelly cube every day to strengthen the nails. :chuckle:
 
Floyd1 said:
Remember when we used to be told that the 'half moon' shapes in our nails showed how much milk you drank?
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I have always had great nails. Very strong and not at all splitty. And I have never had much of any real serious problems with my teeth either. I kind of assume that it was something to do with drinking A LOT of milk as a kid. It was my go to drink for most of my childhood and early teens. I was thirsty. I drank a glass of milk. That could be complete nonsense though.

As for my handedness, I think the correct term for mine is 'cackhandedness'. I am totally and utterly right handed. My left hand is so useless it might as well be vestigial. I only keep it to maintain some semblance of aesthetic symmetry.
 
Spudrick68 said:
I'm left handed, would bowl at cricket left handed but right footed at football.
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Can you do the 'draw a circle with one hand clockwise/anti and move your foot in a circle the opposite way thing'?

I seem to be able to do all permutations, except right hand and right foot. (I'm right handed).
 
Floyd1 said:
Can you do the 'draw a circle with one hand clockwise/anti and move your foot in a circle the opposite way thing'?
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Nope. I am now wondering if that may be related to the fact that I cannot automatically do things that I can do working from or with one sid, with the other.

For example, I work with people who need some level of assistance with personal care. One woman is in a wheelchair and needs full assistance with all of her care.

Two people usually help her get in and out of bed. I can work from both sides of the bed, essentially just mirror movements, but when I first started working with her, I had to intentionally work from both sides and learn how to do things from each side.

I seem to have some cognitive difficulty learning how to do similar and familiar tasks with one side and transferring this knowledge intrinsically.
 
brownmane said:
I seem to have some cognitive difficulty learning how to do similar and familiar tasks with one side and transferring this knowledge intrinsically.
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there's a "thing" about crossing the median line. Some humans are good at it and others are bad at it. Strong correlation between being neurodiverse and finding it less than instinctive.

Does this fit with what you are describing? It's something to do with reflection versus opposition I think.
 
Frideswide said:
there's a "thing" about crossing the median line. Some humans are good at it and others are bad at it. Strong correlation between being neurodiverse and finding it less than instinctive.

Does this fit with what you are describing? It's something to do with reflection versus opposition I think.
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Dyspraxia. AKA Sensory Integrative Dysfunction. May or may not be somewhere on the spectrum, people who have this. Something to do with the brain being less efficient at developing engrams - or something.
 
I'm right dominant but ambidextrous in many things (like painting and decorating, weirdly, can do it as well with my left as my right hand). I usually eat and drink left handed but write right handed. I also knit inside out (in the round) and backwards. And some of the crafts I do, I do lefthanded. Others, right.

I think I'm naturally right handed but my mother was left - and so many things she probably accidentally taught me to do lefthanded? Never been sure. My bro is left handed but fairly ambidextrous with his right. All my kids are right handed which surprised me. My mum was punished at school in the 1920s/30s for being lefthanded, but they couldn't beat it out of her. She was determined to let us be whatever we were and had run ins with my bro's teachers when they started trying to force him to be right-handed. I just always was right handed but think got confused by being in a household of left handed people...
 
Frideswide said:
there's a "thing" about crossing the median line. Some humans are good at it and others are bad at it. Strong correlation between being neurodiverse and finding it less than instinctive.

Does this fit with what you are describing? It's something to do with reflection versus opposition I think.
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Possibly. It's the mirroring of same motions or movement.

Ghost In The Machine said:
I'm right dominant but ambidextrous in many things (like painting and decorating, weirdly, can do it as well with my left as my right hand). I usually eat and drink left handed but write right handed. I also knit inside out (in the round) and backwards. And some of the crafts I do, I do lefthanded. Others, right.

I think I'm naturally right handed but my mother was left - and so many things she probably accidentally taught me to do lefthanded? Never been sure. My bro is left handed but fairly ambidextrous with his right. All my kids are right handed which surprised me. My mum was punished at school in the 1920s/30s for being lefthanded, but they couldn't beat it out of her. She was determined to let us be whatever we were and had run ins with my bro's teachers when they started trying to force him to be right-handed. I just always was right handed but think got confused by being in a household of left handed people...
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This example by GITM, I think, goes with my problem of trying to mirror something that someone (always a right hander) is trying to show me (eg knitting). The earliest example of this problem was when my grandma tried to teach me how to knit. I sat directly beside her and tried to copy the movements of how she placed the yarn in relation to the needles - either in front or in back of the needles, which needle the yarn was being knitted onto etc. Despite that I swear that I saw no difference in how I was handling the yarn, and my grandma couldn't figure it out either, my stitches would be backward to hers. If I did a knit stitch with her beside me, mine was a purl in relation to hers.

Another later example was when I tried to learn the step aerobics. Everyone in the class moved from one side of the board to the other easily and learned, in a group, by mirroring the instructor's moves. I could not do the opposite side's moves ie I could not transition from one side of the board and, say turn around the end and move to the other side of the board and turn around that end. I always ended up backwards ie facing the wrong way to where I was supposed to be. I was only able to learn the steps when one day, I was the only person to show up to class. I got one to one instruction with the instructor and was able to do it with ease after that.

I have learned that this is a problem for me, only as I have learned new skills throughout life. Though I have this difficulty, I am not clumsy, which I would think would be a problem if someone has problems mirroring.:dunno: Now, when doing anything that might require me to work from both a right and left side, I make sure that I intentionally work from both sides.
 
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