To the Left to the Left…

Both of my kids are left-handed.  My husband and I are not. My dad and mother-in-law are both left-handed but were trained to write with their right hands.  My husband and I didn’t have any preference for our kids to be right or left-handed. We both figured the kids would figure it out themselves and whatever felt natural, we would just let it be.  Both of our families felt very strongly that we should train our kids to be right-hand dominant because it was “mainstream” and would make things easier. In Vietnam apparently a long time ago, kids who wrote with their left hands and used ink would smear on their papers and that would cause a lot of problems.  And for my dad who still eats with his left hand, it’s always a shuffle at big family dinners as to who will sit next to him so they don’t bump arms and elbows when they are eating. We don’t think these are big issues.

When our oldest, our son, was a baby we noticed he liked doing things with his left hand and had read that babies will go back and forth.  When he got older and started eating and later writing he chose to do so with his left hand as well. When he started sports his left handedness was also very apparent.  People notice but it hasn’t been a big deal or caused us any real issues. When our daughter was born we kind of assumed she would be right-handed only because it seemed unlikely both of our kids would be lefties.  She will be 4 later this year and seems to have made it clear to us she is also left-handed. This has been a little controversial in our families as I mentioned before they think being left-handed makes life harder.  They think as parents it is our job and our duty to teach them to use their right hands. When we explain, especially to the great-grandparents, that the kids want to do things with their left hands, they answer that it’s because we didn’t show them or train them.

As the years have gone by and the kids have gotten older the discussion about our kids being left-handed has died down.  It is what it is and people have come to accept it. There are some things that sure my husband and I think we should train our kids to do or be or to train out of their behavior, but their left-handedness is not one of them.  We want them to do what feels right and natural for them, and to embrace it. They were made that way for a reason. Plus, at meals they can always sit next to each other !