[jyl]

Seems to me the first question is how will you be alerted to an intruder, the second question is how you will respond to it.

Alerting -

See if your house has an interior door that can be locked, so that the noise of breaking through would wake you up. For example, my house is three floors, the stairway from first to second has a lightweight door, I could replace it with a solid door and a sturdy lock.

Alarms and dogs are also options.

Responding -

A gun in a bedside safe seems adequately safe to me, as another dad with small kids (and their friends) around. As long as you are not the forgetful type who is going to walk away and leave the safe open.

If you just don't want to take any chance of an accident, perhaps you can look into a Taser, or two. With a baseball bat . . .