Did y’all know that International Left-Handers Day was this past Saturday, August 13th? For the 90% of us who are right handed, it probably escaped our attention. I’m a righty surrounded by lefties: my sister, husband and 5-year-old daughter are all lefties.
Lefties are a special tribe and they will be quick to tell you that sadly it’s a right-handed world. If you are a lefty, then I salute you! You are rare…like a fine wine…like a yellow diamond…like a 4-leaf clover.
Apparently, the odds of having a left handed child are 50/50 if both parents are left handed and about 25% when only one parent is a lefty. When both parents are right handed your odds drop to well under 10%. You will know if your child is left or right by age 3 to 6. Males are 1½ times more likely to be left handed than females.
Did you know…
- Only about 10% of the people on the planet are lefties.
- Left handed presidents: James A. Garfield 20th, Herbert Hoover 31st, Harry S. Truman 33rd, Gerald Ford 38th, Ronald Reagan 40th, George H.W. Bush 41st, Bill Clinton 42nd, Barack Obama 44th.
- Bill Gates and Oprah are left handed.
- The two surviving members of The Beatles are lefties: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
- Left handed pitchers are in demand! They don’t throw as fast as right handers but they are needed to get left handed batters out.
Smarties, are you or any of your children lefties? Do you have any tips for raising a lefty in this right handed world?
8 comments
My daughter is a lefty, where both my husband and I are right-handed. It has been interesting as far as teaching her how to write. I can already tell that a lot of toys out there are geared towards kids who are right-handed, but my daughter always seems to make it work 🙂 Would love to hear what other people have to say on this topic …
My son and I are both lefties. One thing to keep in mind that is that your child might not do everything lefty. I played sports right handed or a lot of times unconsciously would hit with two forehands in tennis. I was also able to switch hit in softball. Coaches tend to cater to the righties and often forget the lefties! Other then that, I love being a lefty!!
Exact same as Jenni, lefty daughter of 2 righties- she is 4 so havent had too many issues. Except everything with an attached pen is cumbersome for her. Would love some tips.
One of our identical twin boys is a leftie, my husband and I are both right handed as well as our other 3 kids. I wonder sometimes if my boys are mirror image I’d twins since one is right and one is left handed. My leftie has much neater hand writing and seems to have no problems so far. My three boys race BMX and it is I interesting to see how the leftie varies on his techniques versus all the rightie racers. I did not realize lefties were so rare. Thanks for the article!
I am left-handed and came from a big left-handed family. Of my 3 kids, only oone is left handed. It’s def. difficult especailly things righties take for granted such as ironing and when you write, your hand is smearing over the peccil, ink as you write…Lots and lots of practice helps…College was a nightmare in that the desks that are attached are all made for righties…I consider myself special and I actually love it even though the world doesn’t make it easy for us….Most lefties can do most things right handed as well…including writing.
Go on with your bad self and 35 fb “likes”!!
lefty-lucy:-)
My eldest son is a lefty, as are my MIL and BIL. My son has a hard time writing. Doesn’t like it all. He’d much rather type.