There were many glitches in this quest forcing me to start over several times from a previous save. One consistent bug was when the bandit thug approached me, upon arriving home, to inform me that my wife is being held for ransom. Just a few words into the explanation the bandit would exit the conversation and start attacking the kids and the pet fox. So I had no choice but to attack the bandit while the whole time she would say "I'm on your side". And there were other bugs but...

What really bothered me was not the bugs I encountered but the fact that the kids were completely oblivious to the fact that they had just been attacked and that their mother was kidnapped. When I approached them after killing the bandit and taking the ransom note they wanted to play a game or ask me for a present. It was business as usual.

Could Bethesda not get an extra few lines of voice acting done? I think Hearthfire is a good DLC overall but it could benefit from more voice acting especially for the spouse and kids. I've never seen the kids interact with the wife. They just kind of coexist and that's it.