You should be able to use your time off however you want to use it.

The thing about PTO is that you get to use it however you want to. That’s part of the deal. If you want to use it to sit on your couch doing nothing, then that’s your business. If you want to use it to take a trip halfway across the world to Australia and sit on the beach all day, then that’s your prerogative. You don’t have to give a reason for taking it, and you don’t have to explain yourself. All you have to do is make sure that your work is going to be accounted for while you’re gone, and that you leave your teammates to be set up for success. But other than that, it’s called paid time off for a reason. You get to use it to serve your interests and your life. But some fields don’t respect that philosophy. 

They want to stick their nose in your business and make sure they’re getting every last inch of work out of you that they can. They want to control how you spend your time, even when you’re not there. And some people have different priorities than others. They might understand if you took time off to go on vacation, but they might not understand that you need to take off when your child needs something from you. When you’re a parent, those priorities always come first. You would do anything you needed to do to help them.