Patricia Krentcil: Tan Mom Celebrity Or Child Endangerer?

 

Patricia Krentcil: Tan Mom Celebrity Or Child Endangerer?

(If that is even a word. It’s 5 a.m. Too early to think, ha ha.)

5-15-2012

 

 

               Nice way to glamorize Melanoma.

This is nothing I had planned to post about today, and Lord only knows why I’d give this freak show any ‘air time’ on my blog. But basically I guess it’s not just that the tan mom is such a nutty buddy or tanorexic, which I think is an inappropriate name since tanning is a vanity thing that may become an addictive behavior to some true…but should not be placed in the category that even sounds close to anorexia, which is something I battled myself many moons ago, and may seem vain but it’s more of an illness than a vanity. I find the term to be a bit invalid. Tanaddict works better to me. She just seems to care more about her tan than her child. (Maybe fame & fortune now.)

 

I don’t have much time today because I am one of those parents who’ll get up early, get myself showered, dressed, wait in the car for 40 minutes, and then go into the classroom for a 15 minute chance to see my child and her classmates dressed up and then leave, but let me say that seeing this tan mom on my computer screen on AOL news when I turned it on at 4:30 a.m. after a bad night’s sleep was downright frightening.

 

Now who among us doesn’t enjoy the feeling of sun against our skin? We all do. It does feel really good, and I’m not claiming to have never seen the inside of a tanning salon in my life. I used to feel I looked better with a moderate tan. Not being burned to the bone like this lady. I was a teenager then, not a grown woman. Even then I protected my face. Just would change my makeup color.

 

My parents never put sunscreen on us as kids. The few pictures we do see of ourselves we were always tan in during the Summer, even at 4 years of age. Now I really wish that my mom had annoyed me like I annoy my own children, and lathered me up with sunscreen as I do to them. I get kind of angry because I pay the price for it now in my 30′s.

 

My fav. choice for the kids.

 

My kids have always said to me, ”Mom, why are you doing this? It’s so annoying!” I say in rebuttal, ”If you want to ruin your skin, wait until you are older and ruin it for yourself. I’m not going to be to blame for that.” It’s not only about ruining your skin, it’s about cancer potentially to. My uncle had a bad case of it on his face and will never be the same again, and my mom had a slight case and has since given up sun bathing without sunscreen.

 

We (should) want to protect our children from everything bad in this world, and knowing the sun is bad..I can’t help but be the mom who always carries that sunscreen to the park and gets eyes rolled at me when the big pink bottle comes into view. How a mom could subject a child to a tanning salon, or encouraging tanning to her young child in general, is bizarre yes, but it’s also a form of child abuse. When you allow or cause any damage or bad to come to your child knowingly, as she did (allegedly), this is abuse. Am I wrong?

 

Pale & pretty!

 

Look at this woman’s face at 44 soon to be 74 being generous. Is this what she wants for her child’s future? If her child would even have a future as melanoma is ravenous and potentially quite fatal. I used to think a moderate tan looked nice. After seeing these pictures of super tan people, I take that back and would say, ”Pale is the new tan.” Even the ones that get the fake tans, which some in those photos did have, it doesn’t look attractive AT ALL! It’s scary!

 

They banned her from tanning salons, but who could ban her from buying her own tanning bed?

 

 Getting back to the tan mom who allegedly allowed her 5 year old to go into a tanning bed, WHY is she getting the glory instead of the slammer in this? She has her own action figure now. The ‘tanorexic doll.’ (She should be so proud.) She even said she would pose for Playboy. Ok, Hugh Hefner might be old, but I’d like to think he still has some standards. That would be more of a dry heave issue than a  provocative one. Who wants to see her in her saggy, leathery birthday suit?

 

 

I do hope one thing comes out of this. That seeing her pictures scares some young girls who regularly enjoy stepping into a tanning salon to step back and think twice. Your future may not look so pretty. And what about her 5 year old? Is this a healthy role model? Also, will she ever pay for what she did here, or will she just get her own reality show and make tons of money off of it? Likely the latter I reckon. The world is a mad place indeed.

 

She obviously doesn’t realize how her actions and behaviors now, influence the future of her own child’s life. I know firsthand that it does.

 

 

Extra ‘notes’

Not that I know for sure, but personally I don’t buy that this woman left her child in the room but never let her see the inside of a tanning bed. (Which still is dangerous UV wise. Do you take your child into the bar even if they don’t drink?) She says that the child got burned from the sun after the child tells her friends her and mommy went tanning together. Despite her fair skin, my daughter could not be more pale, and despite how long she’s out..NEVER a one sunburn thanks to nutty mama .

 

I’m not saying sunburns don’t happen to children..duh. I had many growing up. But little girls do want to be like their mothers regardless of anything. (Yes, even when they look like this.) I think this mom needs a good dose of therapy and no more UV before parenting her child again. Let’s also note this is NOT her 1st arrest.