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We had dinner with friends last night, during which we talked about the transformation through which teenaged girls go, much like Linda Blair, particularly with respect to their mothers.

The day before I’d been talking with a friend about 8 year olds and the attitude changes through which they go, and the day before that I was imparting my wisdom about the plight of unwed fathers trapped by unprotected (and untruthful) young women.

There seemed to be a theme, and it all boiled down to one thing.

What do all of these scenarios have in common?

Raging hormones.

And it got me thinking. It’s amazing just how much these little chemicals – and in such minute amounts – can make such a difference, and have such an impact, on how we behave.

And we know it, and yet we choose to overlook it, to downplay it – hell, even to deny it (any of you men ever made the mistake of attributing your wife’s over-reaction to something to “that time of the month”?)

Nobody wants to admit that something that they did was based not on a considered and conscious choice they made, but on a whim – a chemical-induced whim.

Yet, let’s face it: raging hormones are behind a lot of stupid things we do.

In my practice as a fathers’ rights attorney I saw it all the time. Thousands of babies are born every year as a result of raging hormones.

As the mother of a teenaged daughter I saw it, as the mother of a maturing young son I see it.

Hormones are extremely influential in how we feel, and how we want to act.

Sometimes we know it’s hormonal, and we rein it in. Sometimes we don’t (know, or rein).

Children and teenagers don’t understand – they just know that they have “big feelings” and don’t know why, or what to do with them.

Adults know, but sometimes they still don’t know what to do with them.

So c’mon, fess up. What have you done that was blindingly stupid, as the result of raging hormones?

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