I am really surprised - parents in America let their kids be left-handed?

Question

I was born in 1987 and lived in Indonesia for the first 17+ yrs of my life. I am now 19 & have been in usa for 1 yr.

In my grade level in Indonesia, out of 120 students, 3 were left-handed and I remember the PE teacher saying 3 left-handers out of 120 is more than average. I knew one of the left-handers quite well and she told me her mum used to hit her left hand with a ruler but she never became right-handed. Out of about a hundred ppl I knew from my school in Indonesia, she was the only left-hander.

I came to usa last year and have made quite a lot of friends since then. I notice about 15% of my friends are left-handed, most of them being caucasian girls. Out of about 10 of those I asked whether their parents tried to switch them, only 1 said yes. I was really shocked that american parents let their kids be left-handed. I have always thought left-handed is a bad habit like thumb-sucking that parents have to try to refrain their kids from doing.

I guess I am backward?

Answer 1

No just not caught up with the times, up until the 1980's parents mostly were told to train their left handed children to be righty's but those who were born left handed and forced to switch always had worse handwriting, difficult keeping up in classes and other problems so it slowly changed to not try to change them. My son used both hands until he was 7 and I still can write with both but I am predominately right handed, but my son still does somethings with his right and some with his left. The doctors thought he would eventually choose one over the other but never has. Good luck & hope this helped.

Answer 2

Look I am a right hander and my bestestesteset friend in the whole isaleft handerr! You know what when you go to the store everyday and want to buy a soda the clerk will let you swipe you're card even if are a left hander. Now for the parents part that is just stuipd and wrong. Parents should love their children no matter what they look like or habbits they might have. A daughter may be addicted to guys but the mother doesn't stop loving her. So really I have no comment on why a mother should hurt there kids just cause there left handed. So yeah you are backwords to think such things. Now I dont know how it was in Indonesia but here we dont judge people by there color,shape, size and abblity (Well not everyone)!!!!!

Answer 3

Canadians do too!

I was born in 1976 in Canada & have always been left handed.

My grade one teacher was very old fashioned & (strict) & she felt the same way as you did. The teacher had my mother & I come to school to her classroom & the teacher tried to get me to write with my right hand & once my mother saw how messy my right handed printing was, that was it. My mother finally piped up & said "No Way She's Left Handed & Thats It."

After that day, the teacher never said another word!



If you watch tv on a regular basis, start paying attention when actors or actresses are writing, there's a high percentage that are.

In just my family alone there is my cousin & I. Then I have a close friend who is also left handed.

Apparently people who are left handed use the right side of their brains while right handed people use the left side of their brain.



In Britain, around 11% of men and women aged 15-24 are now left-handed, compared to just 3% in the 55-64 age category.[19] McManus suggests a number of factors that may be driving this increase:



*Left-handers were severely discriminated against during the 18th and 19th centuries and it was often "beaten out" of people,



*In adulthood, left-handers were often shunned by society, resulting in fewer marrying and reproducing.

As discrimination was reduced in the 20th century, the number of natural left-handers who stayed left-handed increased

The rising age of motherhood contributed as, statistically, older mothers are more likely to give birth to left-handed children.



Nicole

Answer 4

That's a primitive attitude. In some countries it has to do with cleanliness--you only greet people and eat with your right hand because you wipe your butt with your left. If you're going to choose a hand for that reason, it's easier to go with the one 85% of the people use naturally. In societies using hand weapons, it's easier to fight with the 85% who use the same hand that you do. You don't have as much chance to practice for the other 15%, and that can be a real disadvantage.



But as soon as you look carefully at WHY the left hand is discriminated against, you begin to notice problems. Lefties forced to use their right hand are being forced to use a side of the brain that doesn't work as well for some tasks. Stammering is a common side effect of forcing a person to change hands.



There is one very clear reward to being left handed, though. It's said that a wife lies on the right side and a mistress on the left. My family was comparing notes and the wives all slept on the left side, in the mistress position. Except mine. And then I knew what was happening. When you sleep in the same bed and the man makes an approach, he rolls toward the woman. Which hand is uppermost and free to use then? It seems we all had satisfying marriages. I'm left handed. But there's an 85% chance that the mate (man or woman) of a left hander will likewise have the favored hand topmost.

Answer 5

People are born left handed. Left handed people actually think more with a certain side of the brain and it's not a habit or a bad thing. I have heard that many years ago, left handers where made to switch but that does not happen anymore.

Answer 6

I would not call it backwards, but I'd call it a cultural thing. You need to get over it though.

Being left handed is not a bad habit- it is something that your brain decides. You will not feel too happy if somebody forced you to write with your left hand or your foot, so leave the lefties alone.

My dad's and my mom's grandmothers were left-handed and their parents and teachers even spanked them to make them switch. They wrote with their right hand, but had horrid handwriting, and used their left hand for everything else ( knitting, cutting, etc). Handedness is something that your genetics decides.

I am left-handed and I've never had any problems, nor anybody (except for my first-grade antiquated teacher) has tried to switch me. I did more than fine in school, so it has never been any problem.

Answer 7

I was a leftie as a child, my teachers made me do things with my right hand starting in kindergarten here in America in the early 80's-I had terrible handwriting and couldn't even cut with scissors for years. Then they'd talk to my parents about how behind I was, which was stupid because they made me that way. I still eat and do regular things with my left but write with my right, if I write with my left now it's like a kindergartner since that's where I stopped writing. I think it's cruel to make a child go against nature.

Answer 8

I AM A LEFTY AND PROUD OF IT.



My parents tried to make me switch, it did not work. Nothing worked and they had to give up. Making a child change hands is OLD SCHOOL, it was quite common back in the 30s, 40, 50s.

But nowadays, parents accept it. We understand that kids are different and we praise those differences.



Honestly, I believe it is hereditary. A gene for left-handed. And it can travel through many lines of generations. One of my sons is left handed like me and one is right handed like my husband. It is natural.



Back in the early days we could not accept differences. When I was born I had reddish olive skin and black black hair and dark blue eyes. My mother and father looked at me and though someone in the hospital switched the babies up. My father wanted to give me back. He thought I was Indian. My mother said no I will keep her even though she looks nothing like the rest of the kids and family. Well I can tell you after 50 years that I am deffinately her child and I look just like my brothers. What if she would have tried to give me back? Tried to change me? Did not accept this left-handed BABY?

Answer 9

left handed ness is not a habit it is just who you are. My mother was raised where left handed was bad. She was hit every day by teachers and she is still left handed. It is really hard to change your dominant hand.

Also it is proven that people who are left handed think with their right side of the brain and tend to be more creative so why would you not want a child to be creative

Answer 10

I was not forced to use my right hand but I use both my right and left hands to write. It's not a bad habit. It's not a bad thing to be right or left handed here. It just takes some getting used to. My handwriting is neater with my left hand than my right but I use both. It's not a habit some people just sometimes write better with one hand than the other. It also has to do with the side of the brain a person uses.

Answer 11

I am almost 60, and I remember people who were old when I was young talking about how they were smacked until they used their right hand. They also UNIFORMLY said that they would never do that to a child. I was left-handed, and none of my teachers, nor my parents or grandparents, ever tried to bully me to change. It was not made much of at all. "Southpaw" was as much as they ever bothered to tease me about, and I didn't have any reason to mind that.



But the old Victorian ladies told us about how, when they were young, people were cruel to their children, and beat them to make them right-handed. We were glad to live in better times, and that was the end of the discussion. No big deal.



Now, at my age, I hear that there are still places where this cruel custom is continued. I am saddened. I didn't know.



Do we need a left-hander's Liberation Front?

Answer 12

Its a trait, like having freckles or a big nose. Beating a kid won't change that, or at least it shouldn't. Its about which hand is dominant. That is the best hand for writing with. And most left handed children have a left handed parent or grandparent. Being a lefty is nothing to feel shame about. Its just part of them! I hate when people pick on kids for stupid stuff.

Answer 13

Left-handedness is as natural as blue eyes or olive skin. We are born to be who we are. Western cultures stopped changing children's handedness in the 1970s when they finally realised it was "alright" to be left-handed.

10-12% of the general population is left-handed, although 15% of children in Australian schools are left-handed from our research. We believe this is because we no longer stop children being left-handed.

There is a strong tendency in Asian cultures to still stigmatise left-handers and change them where possible but this is changing slowly, thankfully. The porportion of lefties in Asian cultures can be as low as 3% because of this cultural influence.

Answer 14

Years ago, back in the 1930s and '40's, teachers were (mis)led to believe that everyone should be right-handed so the kids would be using their brains "like normal people" do.



Medical professionals have since determined that there is absolutely NO proof that "leftys" have any disadvantage intellectually from anyone who is right-handed.



Now, keep in mind that in many Middle Eastern countries, nearly EVERYONE is right-handed for a reason: People do everything with their right hand, especially eat. The left hand is ONLY to be used for using toilet paper. That is why when people get caught shoplifting, their RIGHT hand is removed, therefore forcing them to eat with the same hand they must wipe their *** with. This is considered to be a "disgrace". Most civilized countries don't follow this tradition.

Answer 15

What difference does it make if someone is left or right handed. As long as the job is done who should care. That's the way GOD made them so shall it be. That's like England driving on the other side of the road unlike the rest of the world, so what , it works for them so who should care. Being different is cool.

Answer 16

when you try and control a person's way of writting you are tryig to rewire their brain this is extreamly unhealthy. Many studies were done and have proven that this method of trying to switch lefties to righties is not good!!! Because Lefties use their right side of their brain they are very good problemsolvers. I am a lefty it is very difficult to live in a world that has basically made for right handed people but I have adjusted nicely with no ill affects. In the U.S.A. diversity is what this country was built on enjoy it, embrace it, and learn from it.

Welcome to America, I hope your stay is a pleasant one.

Answer 17

What do you mean,, now-a-days if kids are left handed then way in the world would you want to change that. I have never read anything like this before,

Answer 18

There is no "letting" them be left or right handed. It is dictated by their brain. They naturally use their dominate hand and if you try to change it, it can really mess them up.



I guess your culture just views it differently. Here, it's acceptable to be either left or right handed. I've read studies that say left handed people tend to have higher IQ's. Unfortunately, me and all of my children and right handed!

Answer 19

HEHEHE! I AM A LEFTY--- AND VERY PROUD OF IT! ((:



However back in the day-- 50s/60/s My aunt who is also left handed, when in school the teacher would hit her hand with a ruler also- so it was not always just OK-

Clinton is a lefty.... lots of celebrities are leftys too---- leftys are smart, and special ~((:

Answer 20

You shouldn't change something you are born with. My aunt used to be left handed and where she used to live they hit her left hand untin they broke her fingers now she can't use her left hand very well at all. It may seem wierd to you but it's just the way it is.

Answer 21

people are born left or right handed, it shouldnt be an issue really, why should someone have to change what hand they write with?? as long as they can write who cares what hand its with. me my husban and our 2 children are left handed and were all fine. being left handed is not a habbit. its genetic.

Answer 22

forcing a child to change what has come naturally to them is an extremely old school way of thinking. I am surprised that people still do it & that people find it abnormal that parents dont force their kids into switching. Its not just America, most of the world is now treating their kids as humans not tools...most of it not all.

Answer 23

my mother used to hit me on my left hand every time i used it to eat or write, so i was forced to be right handed. i hated her for that and still have a resentment over that (the hitting). about 10 years ago i decided to really use my left hand. surprising things are:

i picked up writing with my left immediately,

my left hand writing is almost the identical as my right hand writing,

i draw better with my left than my right.

i do have to admit that i really enjoy being ambidextrous. i do have that to thank my mother for that.

Answer 24

How can it be a bad habit when that is what is natural to them?

Would you think it weird if people thought that because you were right handed there was something wrong?????

Answer 25

Left handers think with the right side of their brain. Lefty. fact.



I AM

Answer 26

you are realy backward. whats wrong by being left handed? dont tell me only right handed people live normal lives. there are products made for lefties you know. right or left its the same.

Answer 27

What is wrong about being left handed?

I'm left handed, and it is not a choice we make, nor our parents'

Answer 28

One of my kids is left handed. Its natural and very difficult to change.

Answer 29

well im not too sure why im left handed but i am. my parents didnt try to make me change to my right hand, im not too sure on how americans think of this matter but in australia it doesnt really matter at all.

Answer 30

Well that's something I didn't know.

No your not backward its just what was normal for you guys.

if your right handed you don't get that pencil smudge though and here we don't really care as long as one of them works you're good

Answer 31

Welcome to the U.S., WE do things different here, if you're left handed it's ok, remember, if the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, does that mean left handed people are in there right mind ?

Answer 32

im left handed its not bad i mean its really hard to use the other hand...why dont u try to use ur left hand for everything for 1 day

Answer 33

so what, my daughter is left handed

Answer 34

.................. surprised at you ..................