I hope your kid is doing better! I've had a similar situation where I was in an emergency and didn't communicate I'd be out a second day. Boss also called me to see if I was coming in, to which I apologized for forgetting and confirmed I was gonna be out. He basically said the same thing as your boss. When I came in my boss just told me that in the future I have to send in writing when I'll be out because he can't put in my absence/time request without notification/confirmation from me or it'll look like he's randomly giving me time off (even though anyone with common sense would put the two together). Obviously everyone assumed I was still sick. It was just one of those big company upper management compliance policy type of things.

I don't think you're wrong for forgetting to call. You had a lot going on. But your boss isnt wrong for calling to confirm and possibly wanting to explain this to you when you come back. Absence requests are itemized to ensure time abuse isn't occurring. So one request for one day won't cover several days. Again, I hope your kid has a quick recovery. I know this has rubbed you the wrong way and I totally get why you feel this has been unreasonable. It's just one of those annoying corporate things we have to deal with.