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What's needed here is some education, and some time to get used to the idea that the boat isn't going to fall over and stay there. Also, why are your wife and kids in the cabin?? Getting your family involved in sailing is best done in the cockpit. Even 4 year olds can be involved in some minor way, "helping" dad steer, "helping" tail the sheets.
The analogy I use for newbies re: ballast and heeling is to talk about those old punching clowns, you know, the inflatable clowns that had sandbags at the base that you could hit, they'd fall over and immediately stand up again? That visual usually helps them get used to the idea that the boat will return upright in the end.
Sailing is what it is, and heeling is part of the game and should not be something that, in itself, is feared. It's simply the physics of how things work.
I'm a lucky guy in that my wife would prefer to bash to weather at 25 degrees in 25 knots than sail downwind in 15 knots... go figure!
And Sailingdog is correct in saying there is a danger in sailing with the sailplan all forward.
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