Tanning mom: ‘I’m sorry, I’m tan. I like to be tan. It just feels good’

Patricia Krentcil, the New Jersey woman dubbed the "Tanning Mom" after she was arrested for allegedly taking her young daughter tanning, wants people to know she's not the leather-faced lunatic the media has made her out to be.

"I'm up at 3 in the morning, making sure all the wash is done," Krentcil told the "Today" show from her Nutley home in a taped interview that aired Monday. "My husband goes to work at 4:30, he works from Wall Street. And then I make pancakes, pack their bags, and they're all off and gone. And then I work all day inside and outside of this house."

The 44-year-old mother of five—who pleaded not guilty to child endangerment charges earlier this month—said she did not take her then-5-year-old daughter into a tanning bed with her, as prosecutors claim.

"She never went in," Krentcil said. "She never went in."

Police were called to her daughter's school after the girl complained of a sunburn, but Krentcil says her daughter got the burn while swimming in a pool—not from the City Tropics salon Krentcil frequently visits.

"It was beautiful out, and they went into the kiddie pool," Krentcil said. "She's a redhead. She got sunburnt."

"Every allegation was wrong, and I just want people to leave us alone," she said. "I didn't do anything wrong. Is there something wrong about getting your nails done, or somebody who smokes too much?"

Krentcil added: "I'm sorry, I'm tan. I like to be tan. It just feels good. I really think these moms [criticizing me] need to step off."

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