If you can afford the deposit, I think you have to buy your own house, rather than rent. Especially if you have kids. With renting, you're effectively just staying in a hotel, throwing away your money and getting no return. It's also more expensive to rent at the moment than to buy a house, and I've been told that the rates most likely won't go up until 2020.
Then you have to think about your kid(s). If you don't own a house, then they won't be able to inherit one off you when that fateful day comes. You could also get kicked out of your rented house with notice at any time the owner likes.
We save about £50 a month between the family for my daughter, so she will have more than enough to put down a deposit on her own house. We won't be telling her until she's 21, so it will make a nice 21st birthday present