I do almost everything right handed. But my mother insisted that I started off left handed but switched myself over at about four, because I’d heard somehow that they made you be right handed in school. She said that she told me that wasn’t so and that it was fine to be left handed, but I insisted.
When I actually got to school (1950’s) I don’t think they were trying to switch anybody over.
I don’t think I could have made myself switch if I hadn’t been sort of ambidextrous. And I suppose maybe my mother was wrong, but there is a bit of evidence, in that if I try to do something I’ve never done before I sometimes start off trying to do it left handed; and I can generally do things left handed if I try, though as my left hand is generally less trained than my right I may not do them as well. I can write with my left hand, but the result looks like the writing of a young child. I cut the fingernails on my right hand with my left hand, no problem; just turning the scissors on my swiss army knife over.
I am a klutz; but I don’t know whether that’s further evidence, or whether I’d be klutzy anyway. I can’t remember whether I was clumsy for my age before I switched hands (if I did switch hands, I don’t remember doing it; but I have only sketchy and spotty memories of being that young.)
When I was in kindergarten (1966) they thought I was a duh because I couldn’t cut paper with a scissors worth a shit. They sent paper home with lines on for me practice on with my parents.
My Pop said “I know the problem. You’re left handed”.
The school said “we can cure him of that.”
The hell you can Pop said. And insisted they supply left handed scissors.
Turns out about 4 other kids in the class weren’t duh either, they were just left handed.
But my Pop was the only parent to stand up to the school and insist they do the right thing.
That pretty much describes me. I’m strongly right-hand dominant, but said right hand was out of commission (tendonitis) when I first got a mouse. So I learned it lefty. To this day I’m still slightly better with my left.
A couple other small tasks work better with my left - both when the hand is out of my sight. One is a behind-the-back toss when juggling. I hardly juggle anymore, but even when I was fairly proficient, I could not get the right hand to do that.
And tying certain boots with speed hooks. The left hand instantly gets the lace under the bottom far hook, which I can’t see, via tactile sense and proprioception. The right hand - just - can - NOT - get - it ! Why?! It takes me three times as long to get the right boot on, and no matter how I practice, it never improves.
I haven’t answered the poll above (at least not yet) but I’m primarily left-handed. There are things I do right-handed, especially play the guitar and mandolin, and use a computer mouse. If I played a violin, it would also be right-handed.
The musical instrument thing happened as an adult when I picked up the guitar and found that I absolutely cannot play left-handed. Even air-guitar just feels weird. I had piano lessons from about 5th grade through high school and of course never gave handedness a thought there. But the guitar thing came as a surprise. (My own unscientific research has convinced me that I am not unusual there, as I think most guitar-playing lefties play right-handed but I’m not sure why.)
Computer mouse in the right hand is simply because I made a decision to do it that way. It feels weird to me if I try to use my left hand now.
A couple of other comments: I eat left-handed but CAN use a fork in my right without putting out an eye. But it’s not a natural feeling there.
I’m 74 years old and was in school with some absolutely terrifying nuns, some of which should never have been teachers. But none of them ever even suggested that I change hands. I do remember adults at that time telling me that “in the old days” teachers/nuns would force one to change. So I’ve been surprised over the years to learn that some of that still went on with my contemporaries.
I mostly use my mouse with my left hand. I decided to attempt to play Minecraft right-handed, because otherwise i would have had to rebind all the keys on the keyboard, and also, i was trying to generally “learn to play video games”, many of which don’t support lefty mouse usage.
I’m much better at mousing righty than i was, but I’m still very clumsy in Minecraft because of this choice.
I didn’t vote since none of the options really apply. I’m primarily right-handed, but I bat and golf left-handed, but that isn’t enough to call myself ambidextrous.
My father was left handed but was forced to write right-handed as a kid in the 1920s, so I know where I got it from.