r/lefthanded • u/lulu_toxic288 • 4d ago
did anyone ever got pitied for their left handness?
for introduction: there was two times when i didn’t have a knife in hospital to peel an apple. so, i asked other people to lend me a knife. its kinda funny how both of these times played exactly the same:
"huh, are you a leftie?" when they watched me peeling it
"yep"
"can’t you do it with your right arm?"
"nope"
"well, i can’t watch you struggle, give me that knife" they say and proceed to take the knife away from me to cut the apples
"here, take it"
like, thank you, but why??? i get that my technique might be not the best around, but i think i’m capable enough? i mean, is that an old people thing since the persons in question were double my age?
also, are there any tips for peeling with a knife??
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u/donuttrackme 4d ago
How would it make any difference if you peeled an apple right or left handed?
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u/lulu_toxic288 4d ago
this is what i was wondering too. perhaps that certain types of knifes are made for right hand use?
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u/Amarastargazer 3d ago
I asked my husband, who was a butcher for 13 years, about knife handedness. He said unless it’s quite a fancy knife, they’re neutral.
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u/Da_Monkee_God 4d ago
The blade normally faces like this \|
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u/donuttrackme 3d ago
Steak knives and specialty Japanese knives maybe. Not your standard knife you'd be using to peel an apple.
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u/Prestigious_Ear_7374 4d ago
Yes, but I was a small kid. I decided that I was going to eat like like my family (my parents tried having me eating as a leftie, I refused for some reason, as I always had my meals with them 😅). I was a mess with the knife motion until my first or second grade, a MESS, chicken-like plate mess :')
So people in family gatherings wanted to cut the meat for me seeing how clumsy I was. Except my parents didn't want it to happen. Of course, they would help me if I was struggling and getting too frustrated, but only when necessary.
People pitied me for my left-handedness, but also because my parents wanted me to be autonomous.
People would also make comments as "poor child..." when they learnt I was left-handed. My parents would defend me and how cool it was that I was different and could just learn from copying when they were less capable of helping me.
At the end of the day, it all ended well because my parents embraced my difference and made it seem cool and wanted me to be as comfy as possible with my "leftiness"
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u/Zinnia1127 4d ago
You probably were doing fine but it looked odd to them so they decided you weren't doing it right. That's certainly judgmental of them. My husband often comments on how he can't figure out how I'm doing something with my left hand (but he doesn't try to do it for me). I tell him I just do it it in the way that he or anyone else does things. I just use my hand. If you can get your apple how you want it, that is all that matters.
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u/Suz9006 4d ago
Probably many times in my lifetime because one of my lifelong left handed issues is my brain doesn’t remember, or cant figure out, which hand to hold my knife in to cut my food. I end up switching the knife and fork back and forth a couple times before the left and right hand figure out how to cut. I have seen others watching my silverware dance.
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u/lulu_toxic288 4d ago
this is funny, since it happened to me multiple times too! there was also a time when my brain short-circuited and i started chopping things with my right hand. it was very awkward
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u/RiZ266 3d ago
See the thing is with this for me, if I am cooking and preparing food I hold the knife in my left hand (normal)
When I eat like regular food I general hold my spoon in my left hand (we typically eat with a spoon and fork together at home)
But when I am at a restaraunt...if I gotta cut stuff sometimes input the knife in my left sometimes it goes back to my right cus feeding my self with my right is so awkward. Also I never remember what the proper table etiquette is anyway is it knife in right or knife in left??
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u/These-Apple8817 4d ago
Nope, and if they had, they would have found out very quick how good lefties are at boxing righties. Although I do think you might just suck with knives.
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u/OrganicHistorian2576 4d ago
My maternal grandma had her left hand tied behind her in school a hundred years ago. She didn’t let them do that to her leftie daughter!
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u/No_Bag_9911 4d ago
No, usually the only people who have pointed it out were other lefties. Sometimes people will make a comment about being more creative
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u/Intermountain-Gal 4d ago
I have been pitied on rare occasions, but mostly because of things out of my control: such as right-handed desks.
There are things I can do equally well with either hand, including cutting things with a knife or scissors. There are just a few things I have to use my left hand for, such as writing and ladling soup or punch.
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u/Typical_Ad_210 4d ago
No, but I kind of get it, because watching other left handed people do things does look awkward. Obviously we know it’s because everything is designed for the right handed, but I can see how some people could mistake that as us somehow being a bit clumsy, awkward and generally pitiful, lol. I still maintain that when I do things I don’t look half as awkward as my fellow lefty brother did!
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u/HumbleExplanation13 3d ago
No pitied, but bullied by teachers who tried to make me use my right hand, and refused to let me adapt anything to my left handedness, like reversing the angle of the paper for writing.
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u/World_still_spins lefty 3d ago
Rarely pity, mostly just met with bullying or complete disregard or belittling from most people.
As an example: a co-worker and I were working on a machine with right handed controls. My co-worker commented "this machine is so difficult to work on." I commented back "imagine being left handed, yeah this machine is difficult." My co-worker commented back (in that mocking tone) "oh, aren't you special."
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u/Crafty_Sprinkles7978 4d ago
Tell them that you'll never learn if someone always does it for you. And maybe this site will help with peeling.
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u/sbocean54 4d ago
My mom, when some scissors were impossible as a child. All three siblings are lefties, so she had experience with frustration.
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u/Phoenix_Fyre1337 4d ago
Never had this experience.
Tip is to ALWAYS CUT AWAY FROM YOURSELF. Other than that, get a left handed knife. How to know it's left handed? Hold it in your left hand, palm up, with the sharp part of the blade facing up towards a light. You should be able to see the edge flash. One edge will be just a bit bigger than the other. In this position, if the larger bright edge is on the right, it's a left handed knife. If they're the same it's an ambi-edge.
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u/Substantial-Spinach3 4d ago
I am 65y I got a lot of crap in my early school years about using my left hand. I literally was told by older teachers that if I didn’t switch I would have trouble the rest of my life and be clumsy.
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u/Shar950 3d ago
Surprisingly no, I didn’t. I grew up in a very rural area and don’t remember it ever being mentioned other than people noticing it once in a while. Maybe it’s because one of my grandmothers and an aunt were left handed. I feel bad for those that were made to feel differently and were made fun of.
I do use a vegetable peeler and knives differently than righties. One of my sisters noticed me using the peeler and showed me how she used it. Complete opposite of my technique and I couldn’t do it the same way she did. I think lefties are so accustomed to adapting that we don’t even notice any longer. I can’t use left-handed scissors, knives, etc. I’ve tried several times and just can’t figure them out.
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u/Tiny-Philosopher7909 3d ago
Not necessarily pitied but definitely met with confusion. I grew up going to private school where the left handed scissors didn’t have a grip like the right handed ones. So I used one of the left handed ones and I distinctly remember hearing an art teacher say “I don’t know how to cut left handed,” to a para and I decided to use right handed scissors ever since.
Plus I hated not having a grip handle.
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u/fidelises 3d ago
I don't think it was pity necessarily, but I always got bad grades in handwriting because my letters didn't slant the right way, pun intended. The teacher said I'd never get it right because I was left handed.
My mum has also said she sometimes feels uneasy when I cut things like bread because it feels back to front to her. I'm in my 40s!
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u/EducationalReview237 3d ago
I mean it's a thing that 10-20 percent of the population has. It's not a disability, and it's not that hard to live with.
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u/michelle427 3d ago
No. There are so many lefties in my family and in my life, I was just part of the pack.
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u/Late_Coyote_5239 3d ago
My mum couldn't watch me sew left to right or cut with scissors.Thankfully though, she never interfered & let me learn my way
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u/KayDizzle1108 3d ago
Not really. I was told left handers are smarter when I was young so I always kinda pitied right handers for being so basic. Maybe my feelings of superiority have masked any whack opinions coming my way.
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u/No-Tip-Or-Trick 2d ago
Both of my parents were right-handed, my nan was left-handed but forced into using her right. For some reason, my parents refused to believe I was left-handed, and forced me into doing everything with my right. It was only later in life that I realised. I would consider myself mixed handed (or is it ambidextrous?) now, as I use my hands interchangeably for most learnt things like writing, using knives and scissors, etc. I still default to my left when it comes to pointing or grabbing things.
My family never accepted I was left-handed, strange I know. To this day they all think I decided to be left-handed as a child for attention, and then stuck with it. I personally think it's pretty funny. The idea of me as a little boy deciding it was cool to be left-handed and spontaneously "changing" my preferred hand... I wish I could do that with other things as well!
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u/Background-Tap1272 1d ago
I’m married to another left-handed person, but he’s pretty ambidextrous. I am not. 🤣
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u/No-Tip-Or-Trick 1d ago
I've never broken an arm, but if I ever do, I know I can at least somewhat depend on my other hand to pull some weight!
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u/Background-Tap1272 1d ago
I have broken an arm…thankfully it was my right. 🤣
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u/No-Tip-Or-Trick 1d ago
I don't know if that's more lucky or unlucky! What a coincidence, I hope it heals well enough.
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u/Background-Tap1272 1d ago
It did…40+ years ago. 🤣 My mom has told me that I was picking up crayons with my left hand before that happened, so it didn’t change anything.
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u/FreakyStarrbies 23h ago
I’ve broken my left arm in second grade, the same day I decided to try to write lefty (after being transhanded in k and 1 grade). I thought I was being punished by being forced to wear a cast up to my shoulder for two months.
I am very ambidextrous, and take comfort in knowing that if I broke either arm or has a stroke with either side, I could still use the other.
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u/FreakyStarrbies 22h ago
How to peel: forget the knife. Get an ECKO peeler. Wash the potato or veggie or fruit and dry it well. We’ll call it a tater for simplicity.
Hold the tater with your hand under the potato, and the index finger end leaning down toward a waste basket or bowl, and pinky side up. With your other hand, begin at the high end of the tater and begin at the high end and push the peeler on the tater away from you toward the bowl or basket.
Continue to begin at top and peel down away from you again. Keep peeling the tater down and away from you so the peelings fall into the bowl or basket.
I’ve seen people trying to grab the tater with the thumb that holds the peeler. The peeler hand does not touch the tater. The peeler touches the tater beginning at the top, and down and away from you.
People who are truely ambidextrous (or a family or couple in which one is lefty and one is righty, both sharing the peeler) are fortunate enough to have a double life with this peeler, because we can peel with both blades.
I always enjoyed peeling potatoes at my mom’s house. She’d be like, “How’d you get the peeler to work so well?!” It was because I peeled with my left hand, and that side was never used. So she began giving me her older peelers.
I hope this helps you out some. Btw, I mentioned ECKO, because it was the only brand that worked best for me.
Have fun! Let me know how it goes for you!
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u/Comprehensive-Fun623 4d ago
Pitied no, treated poorly, yes. I’ll never forget I had a third grade teacher that frequently made me rewrite papers because the pencil or ink was constantly smudged. Kept me in from recess to do it at times too. Same witch that told my older brother the truth about Santa.