I agree that a few minutes of chatting is fine, after all that's the benefit of home daycare that's its more personal and you get that special attention that perhaps you don't receive at a daycare centre. That being said, the chatting should not exceed an obsurd amount of time. If pickup is at 4 then in my opinion, dck and parent should be out of my house by 4:10 at the latest. My dcmom stays and chats/watches as her child runs around wild in my house for 20 min if not longer everyday. She knows that he is my last pickup for the day so that worry of me tending to other dckids isn't there. At the same time, I have my own kids and hubby who I would like to spend time with and there's just no respect from her end for my time. I once was that parent who picked up my child from daycare and I can honestly say that I was always eager to get home after a long work day. I couldn't even imagine allowing my child to run wild while I stood at the door. Guess some people are just stupid! I say that in the nicest way possible but really, take your kid and go home!!! I watch them for 9 hrs a day, 5 days a week, I don't need further entertainment outside of that. She always feels the need to fill me in on her child's successes and what he did yesterday...honestly , they parent for a whole 2 hours a day before child goes to sleep!!! Either way, putting up a gate and will have to be more blunt otherwise this will just drive me to termination.