Vocal Voices

I had a WhatsApp video from Michael showing Lyra opening her Christmas presents and she is very left-handed.... in some things.

When opening the presents - ripping the paper - it was done with her right hand, but when playing with the toys, doing delicate things, she used her left hand. She sucks her left thumb, draws and paints left-handed, and puts on her shoes and clothes the left-handed way, yet she can use both hands.

She takes after me. If something needs a bit of grunt it is with my right hand, but if finesse is needed then it is over to my left hand.

I had always considered myself to be left handed because my first instinct is to use it for most things. I drink with my left hand, open bottles and jars, write, kick a ball, catch and throw (I can do that with either hand), tie my laces, etc. and I wondered if Lyra would be the same, so I went looking.

It turns out that we are not left-handed. We are what is known as cross-dominant - we use different hands for different thigs - and that makes me and Lyra two of the rarest people you will ever meet, about 1% of any population.

But calm down; you do not need to go down on one knee or take a bow when you meet us. We might be special, but we are quite normal.

E considers himself right handed, but he eats with the knife in his left hand. And yes, he is special lol

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Jen, I use a knife and fork the 'normal' way, but spoons always need to be turned. At formal dos, such as a wedding, I need to turn them 'my way' and move cups and glasses to the left. If I am eating next to a right-hander we are always bumping elbows.

The family know to seat me at the extreme left end of a table.

You’re definitely special Frank I’m boringly right-handed

I would have thought it was quite common?

For example, I write with my right hand, but I was a left-handed Batsman and left-sided footballer.

The medical term appears to be "mix-handedness" which is not quite the same as ambidextrous. The latter means you can perform a given task with either hand. The former means you have a preference for which hand you use, given the specific task.

https://www.healthline.com/health/ambidextrous

I can pick my pint up with either my left or right hand.
Does that count?

Ally wrote:I can pick my pint up with either my left or right hand.
Does that count?

Me too Ally

I use my right hand to pick things up, but weed with my left. doesn't feel right, using my right hand tp pick up weeds.

Ally wrote:I can pick my pint up with either my left or right hand.

Erm, you're alcoholidextrous, I have seen it in action in Brum, you and Ria.

It wasn't till I joined the Army and watched people twisting themselves into contortions to use their right hand that I realised that many right dominant people have a fork shoveler, prop and generally useless left appendage.

I use my right hand for first preference then switch to left as required. Some things I do naturally with my left.