Two days ago my aunt, uncle & cousins arrived in town for a holiday visit. My youngest cousin is almost 4 and is learning how to write. At dinner, my aunt kept on telling him to stop holding his utensils with his left hand. Yesterday while he was coloring, my aunt very agitatedly chastised him for coloring with his left hand. She was so confrontational about it that he started screaming/crying. The boy is OBVIOUSLY left handed. My father asked her why she's getting on his case about him using his left hand and she said that it's just not natural for people to be left handed and that its a habit she wants to break him of before he starts school. Anyway my cousin was so put off by his moms tirade that he just stopped bothering to color at all.

Am I wrong to be annoyed by this? It's like he's being oppressed. I didn't even know people still considered it wrong to be left handed.

You're not wrong to be annoyed at all. I think your aunt is crazy. Yes, most people are right handed but when I was coming up in school.....it was always encouraged to use the hand that was the most comfortable and natural feel to you. When I was learning how to write, the teacher would actually ask the kids to pick which hand they wanted to write it. If her son is left handed, then let him be left handed. It's not a big deal. I really hope someone gets it in her head to leave him alone. I'd hate to see him have a complex about something as silly and trivial as this.

That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Leave the boy alone he obviously is left handed and that is the way nature intended him to be. I would have been annoyed too.

Sounds to me like your aunt and cousin aren't going to have the best relationship as he grows up. I've known a few people who are left handed and were made to learn how to use their right hands in school. As a result, they can write with their right, but still are more naturally inclined to use their left.

That is crazy, I didnt know people still believed being lefthanded is wrong. WHY?

AtownPeep wrote:

...Am I wrong to be annoyed by this? It's like he's being oppressed. I didn't even know people still considered it wrong to be left handed.

IDK, but I am annoyed on reading about it.

Is your aunt over a century old and been living in a cave for that century? Does she know that left-handed ppl like her son are now accepted in society and no longer carry a sinister reputation?

Geez, someone needs to educate her. I nominate you.

No, you're not wrong to be annoyed. Did your aunt rap your cousin over his knuckles with a ruler like a Catholic nun? You know the word "sinister"?

sin·is·ter   /ˈsɪnəstər/ [sin-uh-ster]
–adjective
1. threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous: a sinister remark.
2. bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell: his sinister purposes.
3. unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable: a sinister accident.

It's Latin root means "left".

Historically there's been a prejudice against leties.

Hell no you're not wrong to be annoyed. My sorry excuse for a mother was like this. I heavily favored my left hand as a kid & she would slap me every time I did. Can't believe people are still that crazy. Someone needs to explain to her that she needs to leave that kid alone.

I didn't think people still held such backward views. I thought that kind of crap went out in the 60's or 70's. That poor little kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People are still stigmatized for being left handed? I remember being in kindergarten and having the teacher "encourage" me to write with my right hand, but I was too stubborn. When later I told my mom about it, she got pissed and confronted the teacher the next day. It ceased to be an issue after that.

RobbieFTW wrote:

That is crazy, I didnt know people still believed being lefthanded is wrong. WHY?

thats what im wondering too, why is being left handed wrong?

cheaps wrote:

RobbieFTW wrote:

That is crazy, I didnt know people still believed being lefthanded is wrong. WHY?

thats what im wondering too, why is being left handed wrong?

This is nothing more than a guess, but back in the day everything was pretty much set up for being right handed. The stem on a watch, guitars, almost everything. I believe it was probably discouraged so that it wouldn't be an inconvenience for the child later in life. I think initially the intentions were probably good but then people just took it to a more psychotic level as if it were some kind of physical malfunction. The truth is that it never was all that inconvenient from left handed people I've known. A few things are backwards but no big deal. But I admit I'm surprised this kind of ignorance is continuing even now.

Didn't they used to call the left hand, the 'Devil's hand?'

Chris wrote:

Didn't they used to call the left hand, the 'Devil's hand?'

I believe so.

CeCe wrote:

cheaps wrote:

thats what im wondering too, why is being left handed wrong?

This is nothing more than a guess, but back in the day everything was pretty much set up for being right handed. The stem on a watch, guitars, almost everything. I believe it was probably discouraged so that it wouldn't be an inconvenience for the child later in life. I think initially the intentions were probably good but then people just took it to a more psychotic level as if it were some kind of physical malfunction. The truth is that it never was all that inconvenient from left handed people I've known. A few things are backwards but no big deal. But I admit I'm surprised this kind of ignorance is continuing even now.

i see, thanks cece

Your aunt is being over the top about what hand he uses.

I had a teacher who tried making me use my right hand but it didn't work, I totally refused to listen to her about that.

My father was one of those who was taught to be right-handed. Oddly, he tends to do most things with his right hand now. Except write - he does that with his left hand. Unless he's at a blackboard or dry-erase board. Then he uses his right. He thinks that's because the teacher could see him when he wrote on the board, but not when he was at his desk.