Ok, everytime I see a headline about the "tanning mom," the mother gets darker.

[Iris]

wtf?

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/8220-tanning-mom-8221-case-spotlights-tanning-bed-181200178.html

[aquart]

1. Not just a daughter... a RED-HAIRED daughter.

You know, the kind you are supposed to slather in sunscreen for a walk to the mailbox.

[Iris]

2. Sigh. Yes.

The story of my life!

But seriously, the mom is starting to look like a burn victim.

[Marrah_G]

35. FACEPALM!!!!!!!!!!

Are you serious? Shit, I am a red headed transparent except for the freckles for of person. I have two colors, extremely pale and lobster red. Not once in my life have a had a "tan". I avoid even swimming unless I have a some shade.

Looking at the woman I would venture a guess that she has some sort of compulsive disorder and probably could not comprehend the damage she was doing to her child.

[madinmaryland]

3. Melanoma Cancer is a real shitty disease. nt

[gateley]

11. I had it. I didn't know that using tanning beds gave you a 74% higher risk of

contracting it until I just read this article! Wow! Probably wouldn't have stopped me from using them anyway. It was the 80's and the darker the better.

Don't know about now, but back then there was no treatment -- you either got it all or you died.

[a kennedy]

17. I will attest to that....my brother in 1980 and my sister in 2010 died of melanoma cancer.

and I miss them both so much.

[DiverDave]

29. I'm so sorry for your loss

a very close friend lost his wife to it.

So I saw the process and it sure is a heartbreaker.

I hope you can be at peace...

Dave

[a kennedy]

34. Thank you.....

I miss her so much....terrible, terrible death. She was so positive, lasted for a year from being diagnosed to her death. I miss her so much.

[Warpy]

4. Yeah, they've decided to demonize her

Her story is that the kid waited while she tanned the way the kid waited while she grocery shopped or went to get a haircut and got the sunburn outdoors.

Some teacher got the story wrong and overreacted and then the press picked it up.

I can't imagine a salon owner would allow a 5 year old child anywhere near a tanning bed, it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

So I tend to believe the Mom this time. I don't care if she's a vain tanning addict. I don't think she did this one.

[Iris]

6. To be fair to the teacher,

she is required by law to report possible abuse. However, it does seem likely this whole thing is being blown up by the media.

[Warpy]

13. Oh, absolutely

Whoever told the media is at fault here.

I can't believe what the media are doing to that poor woman's picture. She looked rather nice in the early ones although it's not going to last. Five more years of those tanning beds and she is going to look like an old army boot.

[pnwmom]

7. Except I heard the girl had a bad burn and that she said she got it at the tanning place.

[Iris]

9. Even if that is the case, isn't it better for the child to let social services handle this

and to NOT make it into a media spectacle? The mother seems like a sad case, and this has turned the family into a free reality show.

[pnwmom]

39. I'm guessing that no one forced the woman to subject herself to the movie star treatment.

All she needed to do was say no to interviews.

[nobodyspecial]

5. Looking at those photos

and based on what the mother has said, I think she is mentally ill and needs help. Clearly, her actions are abusive, but I don't think that is her intention is to hurt her daughter. I hope the mom receives a full evaluation and the daughter is made safe until the mom can properly care for her.

[bullwinkle428]

8. Honestly, this was exactly my initial impression when I saw the picture of her.

[Zax2me]

10. Yea, the media is manipulating images. But in this case they didn't need to.

Her real look is damning enough.

[Politicalboi]

12. She's so close to

John Boner, you would think she would ask him for some tanning tips.

[customerserviceguy]

14. She was all over the local news last night

Looked like a female white trash version of Al Jolson.

[trumad]

15. This her mug shot

Super tan but not even close to the pictures being shown.

[Iris]

19. I've been wondering

what was going on with her mouth. On tv, it looks like she's got a mouth guard.

[noamnety]

21. I'm guessing it's a tattoo

some women get those as a sort of permanent lip liner.

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. So, what day in the recent past was 18/10/2012?

[CBGLuthier]

16. Some very telling comments here.

Gee I was taught to NOT judge people based upon their looks. Some folks here have decided this woman is either trash or mentally ill.

All based upon the way she looks.

Chilling.

[mac56]

18. Certainly you see a difference between

a person's inherent physical characteristics, as opposed to the results of what they choose to do to themselves.

[Whisp]

26. how do you react to anorexic women?

I think it's somewhat the same thing - people have issues with their appearance and for whatever reason this woman overtans herself, it's not healthy. I feel sorry for her and her daughter - pointing and laughing at her doesn't do anything for me because we all have flaws. Well, most of us anyway

[mac56]

30. I'm not pointing and laughing in any way.

My response is sympathy for both her and her daughter.

That said, the poster I responded to seemed to equate the physical characteristics a person is born with, to the physical characteristics a person visits upon him/herself. Infers that suggesting that the tan mom has some mental or emotional problems is somehow tantamount to poking fun at someone born with a "non-traditional" appearance. Sorry, that's a false equivalency I do not support.

Let the pillorying begin.

[Iris]

20. Actually, some here have said they've seen her on tv.

I have. I'm sorry but she looks like she's in her 60s and talks likes she's 20.

[LanternWaste]

23. The extremes we may go to for nothing but our own vanity is also quite telling.

The extremes we may go to for nothing but our own vanity is also quite telling. Seems we may often infer valid presumptions based on the extremes and aberrations one person perceives as a norm.

Not chilling at all....

[bullwinkle428]

24. Okay, I've spent a little time in a tanning booth/bed, and it didn't take me long to

figure out that this was probably not doing me a whole lot of good as far as the long-term health of my skin, and I didn't come close to this woman in terms of exposure. She clearly has some severe self-esteem issues going on, to the point where it's clouding her judgement in a dangerous way, if she's even willing to expose her 5-year-old daughter to this.

[4th law of robotics]

25. You can judge people on their looks

It's not fair to judge them if they're born deformed or just unattractive.

But for stuff *that they do to themselves* sure.

If someone is born with a cleft palate: no, don't judge them for that.

If they decide to cover their face with offensive tattoos: yeah ok. Go for it.

[mac56]

31. +1

[tawadi]

33. Did you listen to her on the vid?

[LynneSin]

22. Pretty soon she'll be John Boehner

[RebelOne]

37. I think she is past the stage of orange. Now she is just brown. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

28. I'll admit it

Occasionally I have done spray tans when I was going to functions where I wanted to look less pale or was wearing something that looked better with a little color...one time I had my grandchild with me when I went in to schedule an appointment and was told in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances could she go anywhere in the building outside of the lobby.

I assumed this was a standard rule in the industry.

It should be.

[tawadi]

32. They need to take that child away from her

The mom obviously fried her brain in the tanning bed.

[Cali_Democrat]

36. WOW:

?w=300

[RebelOne]

38. I lived in Miami, FL, most of my life until I moved to North Georgia.

But I had many friends when I lived in Florida who developed skin cancer because of over-exposure to the sun, including my mother. I learned early on to always wear sunscreen. When I was a child and we lived on Miami Beach, my mother would bask in the sun every day. Her doctor told her that was the cause of her cancer.