What is idle chatter? In AN 10.176 idle chatter is defined as


  He speaks in season, speaks what is factual, what is in accordance
  with the goal, the Dhamma, &amp; the Vinaya. He speaks words worth
  treasuring, seasonable, reasonable, circumscribed, connected with the
  goal.


Bearing this in mind - is right speech purely connected with the Dharma? Should one speak of the Dharma and nothing else? From my own perspective some idle chit chat which has the effect of putting someone at ease in a social situation is a kindness. Similarly chatting to the daughter about nothing in particular is building the bonds of caring and again feels like the right thing to do. However would both those actions be classified as idle chatter and would not be right speech?

On a personal note I probably do talk too much so a bit less idle chatter would do me some good i think.
In a short piece called Right Speech by Thanissaro Bhikkhu he defines idle chatter as that &quot;spoken with no purposeful intent at all&quot;. and he stresses the important of intention in speaking.

Right speech, explained in negative terms, means avoiding four types of harmful speech: lies (words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth); divisive speech (spoken with the intent of creating rifts between people); harsh speech (spoken with the intent of hurting another person's feelings); and idle chatter (spoken with no purposeful intent at all).
Notice the focus on intent: this is where the practice of right speech intersects with the training of the mind. Before you speak, you focus on why you want to speak. This helps get you in touch with all the machinations taking place in the committee of voices running your mind. If you see any unskillful motives lurking behind the committee's decisions, you veto them. As a result, you become more aware of yourself, more honest with yourself, more firm with yourself. You also save yourself from saying things that you'll later regret. In this way you strengthen qualities of mind that will be helpful in meditation, at the same time avoiding any potentially painful memories that would get in the way of being attentive to the present moment when the time comes to meditate.

So in your examples above, of putting someone at ease socially or bonding with your daughter, you have purposeful intent. With awareness of yourself and your motivations and mindfulness of what you are saying, there are surely many opportunities to engage in casual conversations with family and friends without letting it get out of hand and turn into truly idle and mindless chatter.
In your original quote, the mention of &quot;what is in accordance with the goal, the Dhamma, &amp; the Vinaya&quot; seems like it would be more geared towards monastics, but I lack the knowledge of the background of that sutta and the audience for whom it was intended to say for sure.
In Ajahn Brahm's book The Art of Disappearing: Buddha's Path to Lasting Joy, he makes the statement that we talk to say we are here. It's interesting to pause and think of our intention and if it's really only to create attention and remind people that we exist (verbally or digitally with social media posts) with no other purposeful intent, that's definitely an opportunity to understand ourselves a little bit better.