Left Hands

I'm left-handed.  My mother's cousin and I were both left-handed and we were supported by our four parents as we grew up as our handedness was in the minority.    I did some reading online today to see what I could find out about current and historical percentages of left-handed people and the theories and statistics on who are more likely to be left-handed.    

The numbers vary, but about twelve-percent of the population is left-handed.  There is thought to be some correlation of left-handed parents with left-handed offspring, but even with two left-handed parents, there's no guarantee your child's handedness will be one or the other.  

My parents and my cousin's parents helped us celebrate our minority with things like notepads that said, "Left handed people are the only ones in their right minds."   I think there was a t-shirt, but I'm not sure.   We were made to feel special, not broken, just because we were different than most.  They never asked us to write with the other hand.   That's just how our parents were. 

Today at lunch, I looked at my two children eating their ice cream in bowls with their left hands.   My husband is the only outlier in our family.   I wonder if there are notepads and t-shirts we could get for him?

The Big Boy Update:  My son is left-handed.   For a while I wasn't sure if he would be left or right-hand dominant, but he made a clear decision some time ago.   My father-in-law predicted he'd be left-handed when he was still in a high-chair.   He was right. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicle:  My daughter has always favored her left hand.  We put things in front of both children when they were small and they made their own decision on which hand was the one they wanted to grab things with more often.