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.