nanny pto log

Purpose

Track the nanny's days off. The founder + wife are monitoring two distinct things (per founder 2026-06-03):

Disruption / burden — days off where NO coverage was available, so the founder + wife scramble and lose their own work time. "Family comes first." This is the cost metric.
Suspected opportunistic pattern — the founder's hypothesis: last-minute "sick" call-outs may line up with when backup happens to be available (grandparents in town, daughter's aunt in town, etc.). He WFH and observes the household; today's (June 3) sudden sickness surprised him — no signs of illness Mon or Tue, and his parents happened to be in town. He is NOT anti-sick-day ("I want her to take sick days when she is ill") — the concern is specifically sick days that look timed to available coverage rather than actual illness.

So each sick day carries two questions beyond category: was backup coverage available? and were there observable signs of illness? The log instruments both so the pattern can be tested with real data, not a hunch.

Schema

Each entry is a single-line bullet:

- YYYY-MM-DD - <CATEGORY> - <DURATION> - coverage:<none|incidental|planned> - backup-present:<yes|no|unknown> - illness-signs:<yes|no|unknown|n/a> - last-minute:<yes|no> - <notes>

Categories (the reason): NANNY-SICK | NANNY-VAC | FAMILY-VAC | NANNY-OTHER

NANNY-SICK — last-minute call-out, claimed illness
NANNY-VAC — vacation the nanny requested in advance
FAMILY-VAC — founder + wife on their own vacation (planned by them)
NANNY-OTHER — personal day, family emergency, other discretionary

coverage — was childcare in place that day?

none — no childcare; founder/wife scrambled or lost work. DISRUPTIVE.
incidental — coverage happened but was NOT pre-arranged (grandparents/aunt happened to be around). Not disruptive that day, but not reliable.
planned — coverage arranged in advance, or the day was planned by the family itself (FAMILY-VAC, advance NANNY-VAC). Not actionable.

backup-present — was alternate caregiving available that day (grandparents/aunt/etc. in town)? This is the variable the founder suspects she keys off of. yes|no|unknown.

illness-signs — for sick days only: did the founder (WFH, observes them) see actual signs of illness? yes|no|unknown. n/a for non-sick categories.

Duration: full-day | half-day | early-leave | late-arrival | hours: N

Headline metrics (since tracking start 2026-05-13)

Tracking began 2026-05-13 — counts are window-to-date, NOT calendar-YTD (per founder 2026-06-03). Anything before 2026-05-13 is unrecorded.

Total days off (all reasons): 5
Disruptive — sick day, NO coverage (the burden): 1 → May 13. June 30 was a partial burden only — family tag-teamed (incidental coverage), so not a no-coverage day.
Pattern-watch — sick day with backup-present AND/OR no illness-signs (the "suspiciously convenient" ones): 1 → June 3. June 30 does NOT count — real illness signs + backup was about to leave (inconvenient), reads genuine.
Planned / not actionable: 2 → May 22 + 25 (family's own Miami trip)
Watch: founder worried June 30 could extend several days into an already-short week — if it does, log each day (coverage will likely thin once Aunt Lauren leaves town).

Pattern test (founder's hypothesis: sick days cluster on backup-available days): 1 of 3 sick days fits so far — June 3 (backup present, no illness signs) fits; May 13 (no backup, disruptive) does NOT; June 30 (real illness signs + backup was about to leave) does NOT. N=3 is still far too small to conclude anything — and the two non-fitting cases (incl. a clearly genuine June 30) are early evidence the hypothesis may not hold. Keep instrumenting; do not over-read.

By reason (total-time view):

Category	Count since 2026-05-13
NANNY-SICK	3
NANNY-VAC	0
FAMILY-VAC	2
NANNY-OTHER	0

Entries (oldest-first)

2026-05-13 - NANNY-SICK - full-day - coverage:none - backup-present:no (inferred from founder's 2026-06-03 "this time my parents were in town" contrast) - illness-signs:unknown - last-minute:yes - founder iMessage 12:31 ET, no detail at the time. The disruptive one; does NOT fit the backup-available hypothesis.
2026-05-22 - FAMILY-VAC - full-day - coverage:planned - backup-present:n/a - illness-signs:n/a - last-minute:no - founder+wife in Miami (long-weekend trip); gave nanny off. "On us." Logged retroactively 2026-06-03.
2026-05-25 - FAMILY-VAC - full-day - coverage:planned - backup-present:n/a - illness-signs:n/a - last-minute:no - founder+wife in Miami (long-weekend trip); gave nanny off. "On us." Logged retroactively 2026-06-03.
2026-06-03 - NANNY-SICK - full-day - coverage:incidental - backup-present:yes (founder's parents in town) - illness-signs:no (founder WFH, saw no signs Mon/Tue; sudden, surprised him) - last-minute:yes - founder iMessage 09:42 ET. Covered by grandparents so not disruptive, but fits the backup-available + no-illness-signs pattern the founder is watching.
2026-06-30 - NANNY-SICK - full-day - coverage:incidental (family tag-team, resolved same-day: wife Michelle at nap time → Aunt Lauren took her for lunch → founder takes her after his meetings clear so Lauren can drive back to Ft. Lauderdale) - backup-present:yes (Aunt Lauren, covered lunch before heading out) - illness-signs:yes (sniffling yesterday; "genuinely didn't sound good this morning" per founder) - last-minute:yes - founder iMessage 07:47–09:01 ET. Context: already a short week — nanny planned-off Thu 7/2 (standing Thursday off), likely off Fri 7/3 (July 4 observed), and all of next week (family's own Miami summer trip ~7/6+, = FAMILY-VAC, on the family). GENUINE sick day — real illness signs AND the backup was about to leave (inconvenient timing). Does NOT fit the opportunistic-pattern hypothesis; evidence-against. Founder absorbed part of his own afternoon, so a partial burden, but not a no-coverage day.

When to surface

Two separate signals, surfaced when either trips:

A. Disruption (cost): days with coverage:none.

More than 2 no-coverage sick days in any 30-day stretch, OR more than 1/month sustained over a rolling 3-month window.

B. Opportunistic pattern (legitimacy): the founder's hypothesis that sick days time to backup-availability.

Surface once N is meaningful (≥4-5 sick days) IF the share with backup-present:yes AND/OR illness-signs:no is clearly disproportionate. Report it as a ratio with the raw entries, never as an accusation — the log's job is evidence, the founder's job is the conversation.
Until N is meaningful, just keep instrumenting. Do NOT surface a "pattern" off 2-3 data points.

Capture discipline (going forward)

When the founder reports a sick day, capture both new dimensions at log time:

backup-present? (were grandparents/aunt/anyone available that day)
illness-signs? (did the founder, who WFH, observe actual signs of illness)

If he doesn't volunteer them, it's fine to ask once, briefly — these two fields are the whole point of the pattern watch.