idk... it's not an easy decision... I always wondered, why not just have the kids sit on someone's lap or something? hell, even have 2 adults cram into one seat. yeah, it might make the boat a bit unbalanced, but your ship is FUCKING SINKING.
actually, not to sound like an ignorant prick (I'm going to reguardless, but oh well), why not have enough lifeboats for everyone? say it's like 4 people to a cabin, you could probably make a rough estimate as to how many lifeboats you'd need...
again, I'm not exactly an expert on Titanic-ology, so my solution may sound a tad ingenuous (huh, my English teacher was right, I WOULD use that in real life... go figure). just sayin.