Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Tying Shoes Raises a Question

My granddaugher has outgrown her tennis shoes. We have always bought her the velcro shoes because she can put them on herself. Well, this time my son went shopping and came home with tennies that will need to be tied. He thought it was probably time she learned how to tie a shoe anyway. After all, she will be 5 years old soon.

So...as we each have shown Ariel how to tie her shoes, my family discovered something. All of the men in our family taught her how to tie her shoes one way and all the women in our family re-taught her "the correct way". Which raised the question...why do men and women tie shoes differently?

The men all gathered the loop on the right side holding it with their right hand and going around it with their left hand. The women all gathered the loop on the left side holding it with their left hand and going around it with their right hand. This, of course, led to some timed contests of who could do it faster. Not that my family is competitive or anything. :-)

So...which way do you loop your shoestrings when you tie them. Do you "right-loop" or "left-loop"? And are you male or female? It would be interesting to see if there are any men out there who "left loop" or women who "right loop".

And it raised another question...who taught you to tie a shoe? I know I was probably the one who taught my son to tie his shoes. But I sure didn't teach him one way and then do it differently myself. So somewhere along the way, he switched to the other way.

Now I know this has nothing whatsoever to do with knitting...but I was just curious to see if my family was just weird or possibly normal. Everyone in my family has been going around asking folks how they tie their shoes. I wanted to get in on all the fun...so I decided to ask you. It will be fun to see the results.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

O.K. contrary to your scenerio I right loop and tie w/left=the guys way! My mom taught me how to tie shoes. She was LH, but as we discussed that shouldn't matter. Hopefully, there are other females like me tying the guy way. I always have been a tom-boy!! I need to check with other family members. I'll let you know.

Anonymous said...

I tie like you. I had my husband tie my shoe and sure enough he tied like your guys. I was imformed that all right handed people tie the way he did. Wrong as I am very much a right handed person . Plus my mom and grandmother both taught left loop right wrapand they were right handed. . So guess it is just a matter of which is easiest for you as long as they stay tied.

Nonie

Lisa said...

Apparently, I loop like the men in your family. (I had to actually put on a tie-up shoe to test this out.. sad statement, maybe). I am interested to see what other people do. I am quite certain that my mom ties like me and it is possible that my father ties the opposite way.
I wonder if this might not happen because the child learning to tie his/her shoes is sitting/squatting opposite the 'teacher' instead of next to the 'teacher'. It also might have something to do with whether your initial knot is right side over left or left side over right.
Very interesting observation, Sandy.

Anonymous said...

Men's shirts are made to button the opposite way from women's. I don't know why. I wonder if the repetition of buttoning up a shirt a different way somehow affects which way men loop when they tie shoes.

Anonymous said...

Sandy, I tie mine the man way, but I'm also left handed. I can't believe I just sat here and untied and tied my shoes for you. Life's simple pleasures.