In all honesty, if you don't think you're going to be able to go downstairs to check your grow a couple of times a day, then hydro is not for you.

I'm using a simply hydro system - air driven drip lines over a DWC reservoir. And I can honestly say that if I didn't check the system twice a day my plants would be dead. It's just too easy for something to go wrong. And as Weedhound already said, because of the increased growth speed, as well as the fact that you're dealing in just nutrients (water and chems), hydro is much less forgiving than soil. In soil if something goes wrong, it takes a few days before the plants even show signs of the problems, and then you have a few more days in which to take care of things before the problem kills your plant. In hydro the problem can often show up in just a few hours, and you usually have less than a day to respond to it.

So, in your situation, I think I'd stick with soil. Or maybe do hydro and just schedule your grow room visits to those times when the kids are asleep.