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Things it’s difficult to do with your non-dominant arm/hand

April 14, 2014 By Emily 26 Comments

  • Brush your teeth
  • Brush your hair
  • Wash your hair
  • Dry your hair
  • Tie your hair up
  • Dress yourself
  • Dress a toddler
  • Dress a baby
  • Apply make-up (especially when you’re useless at it to begin with!)
  • Spread butter on toast
  • Cut toast (or any food) into kid-friendly portions
  • Pour milk
  • Carry washing
  • Hang out washing
  • Fold washing
  • Iron
  • Sweep
  • Mop
  • Punch painkiller tablets from the painkiller foil holder thingamajig
  • Think (as evidenced by above bullet point)
  • Push a pram
  • Pick up a baby
  • Put a baby on the floor/in a highchair/anywhere
  • Feed a baby
  • Change a baby’s nappy
  • Put a baby to bed
  • Be at all responsible for a baby
  • Sleep
  • Text
  • Type (feel free to applaud this effort – you wouldn’t believe how long this post is taking me!)
  • Take a selfie (again, especially when you’re useless at it to begin with!)

And that’s the just the tip of the painful, strained shoulder iceberg.

The flip side is that it’s easy to feel ridiculously sorry for yourself when you only have the use of one arm. It’s also far too easy to justify excessive chocolate consumption. (Not that I usually have a problem doing that anyway.)

So, how did this happen? I wish I had a fantastic tale of bravery and selflessness to tell you, but it’s quite boring. In fact, it’s downright dumb. So perhaps I’ll save that story for another Dumb ways to get hurt rewrite.

Go me. Selflessly injuring myself for the sake of blogtainment. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.

But you’ll have to cut it into kid-friendly portions yourself.


Have you ever been restricted to the use of one arm while caring for children? Any coping strategies to share? PLEASE?!!

Filed Under: Reflection Tagged With: uncoordination

« You had a bad day
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Comments

  1. ann says

    April 14, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    I am intrigued now I need to know how you did it!!
    Seriously though hope it gets better soon!!

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 8:50 pm

      Thank you! Still stuffed at the moment but hopefully I get a chance to rest it soon.

      Reply
  2. Karrine Beasley says

    April 14, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    Awww you poor thing. Totally intrigued as to what happened though! Hope it heals quick! xx

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 8:57 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply
  3. JD says

    April 14, 2014 at 3:52 pm

    Look on the bright side – you now have a legitimate excuse not to iron, mop, sweep, or vacuum. (do hope you have a speedy recovery, though)

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:22 pm

      Thanks JD. It is nice to point to the shoulder as an excuse instead of just saying ‘I didn’t do it’ like I usually would!

      Reply
  4. Vanessa says

    April 14, 2014 at 7:32 pm

    I’ve never had to entertain children (with one or two arms) but think of it this way – if the makeup goes a bit wonky, just tell them you’re a piece of art πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:22 pm

      I rarely wear make-up, I just happened to have two make-up worthy events in the two days immediately after sustaining the injury! D’OH!

      Reply
  5. mark @ fullhalfglass says

    April 14, 2014 at 7:50 pm

    Hmmm, a very expansive list but I don’t see any mention re – toilet paper. If you’ve pulled that one off with your non-dominant hand then HAT OFF to you

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:23 pm

      Oh no, that’s a nightmare, I just thought I’d steer clear of it on the blog. I HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR!

      Reply
  6. Em @ Have A Laugh On Me says

    April 14, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    Noooo, so sorry to hear this lovely, but I can’t just imagine, being a lefty I find it hard to do most things right-handed. I do hope you spill how you did it soon. Love that shirt you’re wearing.
    Thanks for linking, because I can’t imagine not being able to touch type, I’d be crying…. YOU ROCK!

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:24 pm

      Nawwww. Thanks love.

      Reply
  7. joeh says

    April 15, 2014 at 12:26 am

    It is surprising how you will learn to do things with the bad arm faster than you might think.

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:24 pm

      Getting there on most things. On others? Never!

      Reply
  8. Katie Oliveira da Silveira says

    April 15, 2014 at 9:01 am

    Oh dear, Em, what a disaster πŸ™ But look on the bright side – it’s Easter, and thank God, Easter eggs were designed to be eaten with one hand. Soldier on, sweet pea xx

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:26 pm

      YOU ARE A GENIUS! Yes, thank goodness it hasn’t affected my chocolate consumption!

      Reply
  9. FiveFrogsBlog says

    April 15, 2014 at 11:10 am

    Oh you poor thing! Thanks for getting involved in Laugh Link πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:26 pm

      Thanks for hosting it! Hoping I have enough comedy gold to continue linking.

      Reply
  10. Alicia - OneMotherHen says

    April 15, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    I hope you are on the mend real soon, bummer xxx I can just imagine that once you get the wrapper off the chocolate block one handed, you won’t have the will to break it up and will be hanging on to the entire block up to your mouth lol πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:26 pm

      Yes, and that has never happened before (ahem).

      Reply
  11. Jhanis V. says

    April 16, 2014 at 12:06 am

    I hope your arm heals fast! Dropping by from the Laugh Link.

    Reply
    • Emily says

      April 30, 2014 at 9:27 pm

      Thanks Jhanis.

      Reply
  12. Renee Wilson says

    May 1, 2014 at 9:33 pm

    Ahh God! You poor thing. It must be a nightmare. How are you going? Is it getting any better?

    Reply
    • Emily says

      May 6, 2014 at 4:35 pm

      It is now, thanks Renee. Arm out of the sling, but still limited mobility and weight-bearing ability.

      Reply
  13. Raychael aka Mystery Case says

    April 14, 2015 at 5:39 pm

    I fainted and hit the ground heavy handbag shoulder first and popped it. It’s taken a good 9 months to get it working again, only for me to pop the other one. Although this time, it was a hug from my eldest daughter which means something else health wise is probably going on and it’s time I toughened up.

    Feel your pain.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. When life gives you lemons… how do you keep on writing? says:
    January 15, 2015 at 9:59 pm

    […] what do you know, I rewrite more song lyrics. I sense a theme here.When life gives me a shoulder injury, I take a rare selfie and bemoan the things I can no longer do.When life gives me judgey […]

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Emily

I parent. I write. I blog. I play with words and numbers in my head. Constantly. It's crowded in there.

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