Daily D’oh: Mommy, Can I Get a Tan?

Some folks really need not bear offspring, if today’s “Daily D’oh” is any proof.

A New Jersey mother allegedly took her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning both, and faces a child endangerment charge after the kindergartener showed up to school with a sunburn April 24.

Patricia Krentcil, 44, is an apparent tanning addict. Her skin is about as brown as a Thanksgiving pot roast thanks to frequent trips to the tanning bed.

Has this woman not heard about the dangers of tanning and skin cancer, especially with high melanoma rates among white women? It’s sad she feels so compelled to tan herself to a crisp, let alone (allegedly) placing her child’s health at risk from exposure to harmful UV rays.

When the school nurse asked the 5-year-old where she got the sunburn, the child replied, “I go tanning with mommy.”

Other outlets like TMZ are having fun with this story and the social media buzzards are taking all the leftover jabs they can get. But I’m not busting a gut on this one.

What’s missing from the current reports of this controversy is compassion: for the mother and for the child. Patricia may very well have a serious addiction issue, perhaps triggered by childhood fears, a rough adolescence … the reasons could be numerous.

That or she just really, really loves to tan, even if it’s unhealthy. Maybe a trip to the tanning bed is like a pack of menthol cigarettes to a smoker.

Still, a young child is being thrust into the national spotlight (though, thank God her name isn’t being used in stories), all thanks to her mother’s alleged irresponsibility. And that’s something that should tug at your heartstrings before compelling you to laugh.

Hopefully as a result of the impending trial and media “witch hunt,” as Krentcil describes it, she gets the help she apparently needs and can still mother responsibly in the process.