[The 7 Dwarfs]

I've heard that 10% of the population are left handed, both me and my husband are right handed, yet out of 7 children, 3 are left handed, 3 are right handed and 1 was completely ambidextrous until she started primary school, to which we were told that it was better for her to choose a hand and with their encouragement she became right handed.

Anyone know of the latest theories as to how we become left or right handed? I find it interesting that it is so prevalent among my children compared to the population average, despite not having a parent who is also.

This post has been edited by The 7 Dwarfs: 20/11/2012, 11:20 AM

[RillyBilly]

Well, if you listen to an acquaintance of mine, women who have too many unnecessary scans during pregnancy are more likely to have a left handed baby.....hmm.

[somila]

DH and I are left handed and our two children are right handed.

[Wahwah]

No insight, but we seem to be having an alternate generational thing going on here:

My and his parents - all right handed
Our generation - me & bro = left, him & two sibs = left, one sib right (so 5 out of 6 are left)
Our kids and their cousins = all right

So the grandparents have been teaching the kids how to tie their shoelaces, because it's tricky doing it other handed!

[Mumsyto2]

Well, if you listen to an acquaintance of mine, women who have too many unnecessary scans during pregnancy are more likely to have a left handed baby.....hmm.

This was actually in some literature I was given by my u/s place many years ago when I had kids i.e. there was a chance of this being increased due to scans.

Given I had a left hander with a 'normal' number of scans (3 - dating, 11 week and 20 week) and a right hander with a lot of scans (around 15 due to birth defects being detected and constant monitoring required) I'm not sure if there is anything to it.

ETA - both parents right handed.

This post has been edited by Mumsyto2: 20/11/2012, 11:34 AM

[Tobias'smum]

i am the only leftie on both sides of the family out of about 50 people. DS is only 20months and uses both more right to write with but throwing etc both i will encorage both as its great - writing is the only thing i have to do left handed everything else i can use both mostly because everyone else was right so i think i just learnt

[FiveAus]

Equal. I'm left handed and so are two of my four kids.

This post has been edited by FiveAus: 20/11/2012, 11:32 AM

[Old Grey Mare]

DH is right-handed (as a baby boomer Catholic, left-handedness would have been discouraged).

Me: left handed for everything except tennis and golf and setting the table. Even though I eat like a rightie, I always set the table for a leftie - I know I am doing it but can't help myself.

DS - total rightie

DD - leftie

My mother: a rightie for everything except golf.

[lifehacker]

My Dad is a leftie, I am ambi (was leftie but they changed me at school), dh is right handed. 2 of my 8 kids are so far lefties, I did have a large number of scans actually with the 2 that are lefties (placenta previa & acreta), cant tell yet with my 12 month old.

[Brattacino]

Me and DH and DD- right handed. DS- left handed (writes with left but there are some things he does right and left handed). My father and grandfather were also left handed (and sometimes ambidextrious too). At least these days children are not "encouraged" (with a big stick) to become "right handed" at school like in the "good ol' days".

Does make for fun teaching to write as teachers say things like "use a finger space between words"... try doing this as a leftie or use handwriting books where the example is on the left (and therefore covered by the writers hand). Then there's scissors and can openers... :-)