Parenting & Family Quote by Danielle Steel

Steel makes a small rebellion sound like a guilty pleasure: liking summer, liking the body’s simplest luxuries, refusing to perform the cool, health-conscious self we’re all trained to project. The line is built on disarming repetition - “I like... I like...” - the plainest diction possible, as if she’s insisting that uncomplicated enjoyment is still a legitimate stance. That insistence matters because contemporary “wellness” culture often turns sunlight into a moral test: SPF, shade, skin checks, the constant sense that pleasure must be managed.

Calling herself “one of those silly people” is doing social work. It preemptively accepts the scolding, then shrugs it off. “Silly” becomes a shield: if you’ve already mocked yourself, the culture’s judgment lands softer. The kicker is the generational reversal in “my children are horrified!” We’re used to parents policing kids; here, the kids police the parent, embodying a newer, more risk-literate sensibility. Steel frames it with a wink, but the subtext is real: adulthood now includes being audited by younger people who’ve grown up with different fears (skin cancer, climate anxiety) and different etiquette about bodies and exposure.

Contextually, it fits Steel’s brand of accessible indulgence. Her novels trade in emotional excess and comfort; this is the lifestyle version of the same promise. Summer isn’t metaphorical here; it’s permission. The quote works because it treats pleasure as slightly transgressive, then makes that transgression charming rather than defensive.