Rookery Haus
Everything that happened while you were out.
A rookery is a colony that raises its young in one place, together. This is where yours writes it all down: the naps, the hours, the Thursday that moved, and the forty seconds he spent negotiating over a single pea.
Coming to iPhone, Mac and the browser
Eight hours of his life happen without you.
You get three sentences at the door.
One page, and everybody on it is looking at the same one.
Good afternoon, Kate.
Denise is on the clock.
Since 8:58 this morning. Three hours forty.
Around now
Around his nap Quiet time after lunch
He does not always sleep. Lying down with a book counts.
The day so far
Library for story hour. Sat through most of it, left during the second song.
Park on Bellflower. The wobbly bridge six times, then swings for twenty minutes.
Lunch: most of the pasta, none of the peas. Negotiated one pea. Lost.
Inhaler, two puffs with the spacer. No fuss today.
Down easy, no protest.
01
Where he went
The library at ten, the park at eleven
Not a dot on a map and a shrug. The places, in words, with the times, while somebody is on the clock and only from their own phone. When a nursery sends round an exposure notice naming a place and an afternoon, you can answer it.
“1.8 miles on foot today.”
At the park on Raymondwith Denise, since 8:58 am
1.2 miles on foot today · Recorded only while clocked in, from Denise's own phone.
02
The day, logged
What he ate, what he refused, and when he slept
Meals with what was actually eaten. Diapers. Medicine, with the dose and whether there was a fuss. Naps to the minute. The word he said for the first time. And the fact that you are down to four diapers, before you find out at bath time.
“Most of the pasta, none of the peas. Negotiated one pea. Lost.”
DannyTuesday, with Denise
- clocked in
Clocked in. Kate out by nine.
- meal
Breakfast: half a banana, most of the porridge, raisins picked out first.
- diaper
Wet. Nothing unusual.
- out
Library for story hour. Sat through most of it, left during the second song.
- play
Park on Bellflower. The wobbly bridge six times, then swings for twenty minutes.
- meal
Lunch: most of the pasta, none of the peas. Negotiated one pea. Lost.
- medicine
Inhaler, two puffs with the spacer. No fuss today.
- nap
Down easy, no protest.
- nap
Up. Ninety-five minutes, a personal best this week.
- note
Said “again” properly. Then said it forty more times.
- supplies
Down to the last four diapers and half a tub of wipes.
03
Learning
The homeschoolable bits, tracked as they happen
Counting on the stairs, letters on the fridge, whose turn it is with the spade. Written down as it goes with where he is up to, so you can see the shape of it rather than hearing about it twice a year.
“Got to seven on his own, then jumped to nine. Close enough for a Tuesday.”
Dannythis month
To ten on the stairs. Got to seven alone, then jumped to nine.
Red and blue are solid. Green is anything he likes the look of.
D and A on the fridge. Found the D in his own name unprompted.
Handed the second spade over at the sandpit without being asked.
Said “again” as a whole word Recorded by Denise.
04
When it goes wrong
An incident report with a follow up on it
What happened, what was done about it, who was told and when they read it, and the thing to check tomorrow morning. Most of these end at "what happened", which is the half that helps nobody the next day.
“Check it in the morning before the Band-Aid comes off.”
One reportnothing open
What happened
Tripped on the step down to the garden and scraped his left knee. Cried for about a minute, then wanted to go straight back out.
What was done
Cleaned it, one Band-Aid, cuddle. Watched him on it the rest of the afternoon, walking normally.
Follow up
Check it in the morning before the Band-Aid comes off.
Kate told at 3:44 pm, read at 3:51 pm.
05
If it is worse than that
The numbers, with no signal and no sign-in
One red button on every screen. Hold it to call. Under it: who to reach, the inhaler and where it lives, the blood type, poison control. It works on a phone with no bars and it works before anybody has signed in.
“Blue inhaler and spacer, top shelf by the kettle.”
Reach somebody
| KateMom | 555 0148 |
|---|---|
| MikeDad | 555 0192 |
| Dr. AlvarezPediatrician | 555 0110 |
| Poison control24 hours | 800 222 1222 |
What they need to know
- Asthma. Blue inhaler and spacer, top shelf by the kettle.
- No known allergies.
- Blood type O positive.
06
Two people, one Friday
Asked, taken, confirmed. In that order
Post a shift and the first to take it gets it. Ask one person and nobody else can take it until they have answered, so it is not a race anybody has to win on their phone. Close to the day it becomes a question rather than an announcement.
“Anita took it, eleven minutes ago.”
Friday 5 September, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Kate has a thing that cannot move.
Anita took it took it 11 minutes ago
ConfirmSend back
Asked of Denise, not answered
Nobody else can take it until she answers, so it is not a race.
Next week
| Mon 1 | Denise | 1:00 – 4:00 | confirmed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 2 | Denise | 1:00 – 4:00 | confirmed |
| Wed 3 | Denise | 1:00 – 4:00 | confirmed |
| Thu 4 | Anita | 9:00 – 2:00 | asked |
| Fri 5 | Open | 9:00 – 2:00 | open |
07
The money
One number, on the screen it is paid from
Hours become a week, a week becomes an amount, and the amount is the same on their phone as on yours. Approve it, mark it paid, export the year. Overtime is worked out once and shown everywhere, which is most of the argument gone.
“Two hours over on Wednesday, already counted at time and a half.”
Outstanding$168.00
| DeniseWeek of 24 Aug | 15h | $420.00 | paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| AnitaThu 28 Aug | 5h | $140.00 | paid |
| DeniseMon 1 to Wed 3 Sep | 9h | $252.00 | approved |
| AnitaThu 4 Sep | 5h | $168.00 | to approve |
Two hours over on Wednesday, already counted at time and a half.
08
The house itself
Everything you would otherwise be texted about
The wifi, the door code behind a tap, the museum card, the library number, the back gate that sticks in the damp. Written once by the household, there at the moment somebody is standing in front of the gate.
“Sticks in the damp. Lift and push, do not pull.”
Kept for whoever is standing in it
Memberships
Family, up to four. Free parking under the building.
Danny's card. Story hour Tuesdays at ten.
House notes
Sticks in the damp. Lift and push, do not pull.
Recycling goes out Tuesday night, not Wednesday morning.
09
The handover
The end of a shift, written down
The whole day in five lines, handed to whoever is taking over, with the thing that needs flagging on the front. Nobody reconstructs an afternoon from a wet sock, and nobody has to remember to mention the inhaler.
“Down to four diapers. I have put wipes on the list too.”
Denise to Kate4:02 pm · read at 4:06 pm
- With him 8:58 am to 4:00 pm.
- Napped 12:40 to 2:15, went down easy.
- Ate most of both meals, refused the peas.
- Inhaler at 12:35, two puffs, no fuss.
- The scrape from Thursday looks clean and dry.
Down to four diapers. I have put wipes on the list too.
I have read this
10
The wider family
Grandparents see the day. The internet does not.
A grandmother, an aunt, a friend across the country: invite them to keep up and they get the journal and its photos, the milestones and the calendar, with a heart and a word to send back. Not the house, not the door, not the hours, not the money. Nothing is posted anywhere public, indexed by anyone, or sold on. You decide who is in, per child, and you can end it the same way you would for anybody else.
“That is his grandfather, word for word.”
Nanareading from Tucson
- play
Park on Bellflower. The wobbly bridge six times, then swings for twenty minutes.
♥ Nana, Uncle Tom
- note
Said “again” properly. Then said it forty more times.
♥ Nana
Nana: That is his grandfather, word for word.
- milestone
Counted to seven on the stairs, alone.
♥ Nana, Uncle Tom, Priya
Sees the journal, the milestones and the calendar. Nothing about the house, the door, the hours or the money.
Everyone reads the same page.
What the household sees about a caregiver, that caregiver sees about themselves, in the same words. It is a shared record rather than a report, which is why nobody has to take anybody's word for anything.
Looking after a parent, not a child?
The same house, the same people, the same day written down. Rookery works the same way for elder care.
Rookery for elder care →Questions people actually ask
Who is it for?
A household and the people it employs to help raise its children. A nanny, a sitter, two of them, a nanny share. No marketplace, no agency, and nobody is being algorithmically matched with anybody, which we consider a feature.
Is it hard to set up?
You need an invitation while the beta is closed. With one, a household takes a form and a code sent to your email, and you are its first admin a minute later. After that, adding somebody is one screen: you add a person and they get a link. No password for anybody to invent, no seat license to configure, nothing to install.
Can grandparents see the photos without us posting them anywhere?
Yes, and that is the point. Invite them as family who keeps up and they read the journal and its photos, the milestones and the calendar, and can send a heart and a word. Nothing goes on a public feed, nothing is indexed, nothing is sold. They see the child, not the house or the money, and you can end it any time.
What if the person helping us is family?
Then leave the money parts switched off. Hours, rates and agreements are all optional, and a grandmother has never once required a timesheet in order to read about her grandson’s afternoon.
What do I actually install?
It runs in a browser today, on a laptop or a phone, with nothing to install. The iPhone app is coming, a Mac app after it, and the browser version keeps doing everything either of them does rather than becoming the poor relation.
Who decides what a caregiver can see?
You do, and not by ticking boxes on a screen. Underneath, Rookery asks a separate permission layer called Synap before it shows anything about your child or your household, and Synap answers about a KIND of information rather than a page: the care log, the learning record, the house information, the employment side. Two things follow from that. Take something back and it is gone everywhere at once, not just from the screen you were looking at. And if that layer cannot be reached, Rookery tells you so rather than guessing, because “we could not ask” is a different answer from “no”.
What happens to our record?
It is yours. Hours export as a file whenever you ask, and a childhood does not become somebody else's asset because a subscription lapsed.
Can it work with our door lock?
That part is being built, and the promise is the rule rather than the wiring: a way in belongs to a job. When somebody stops working for you, their way in ends in the same sweep as their sign-in, with nothing for you to remember and no code left living on a fridge. It is optional, it is meant for a lock you already own, and your lock's own password never passes through us. One piece of it is theirs rather than yours: whether the door log says it was them is their decision, not the household's.
Are we sharing a database with other families?
No. Every household signs in at the same address, and behind it each one has its own separate store, so your records are not rows in another family's. We do know who is using Rookery and how to reach them, parents and caregivers alike, because somebody has to be able to help when a person cannot sign in. We do not see what is inside your household: not the journal, not the messages, not the photos, nothing about your child. If fixing something ever needed more than that, you are told first, the reason is recorded, and you can read that record yourself.
Room in the rookery,
just not for everyone yet.
Closed beta, invite only. Leave an address and you go on the waitlist, which is a real list with real people on it rather than a form that goes nowhere.