Opinions wanted re: will writing

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I just wondered if anyone had any advice on writing a will? Myself and my partner need to do this, however keep putting it off. Although the financial side of things seems quite straight forward, one of my particular concerns is re our children both less than 5 yrs. I think it would be good to choose someone(s) to ask to care from them in the event of our (joint) death. I'm not sure who this should be. Should it be a family member or friend? Our parents I spose not really an option. Most of our friends have 1+ child of their own. To be honest I'm not that close to my brother although my partner is close to his....
Can anyone share any tips of perhaps what they have done about this situation? Also is a will-writing kit (eg available in whsmiths) satisfactory? or is a professional solicitor - style one preferable?
Many thanks.

we had ours done professionally to make sure they were done properly and there wouldn't be any unforseen issues should they be required. we haven't stipulated who will look after the children - i have friends who we thought were very close to who we no longer see - so i'd be a bit hesitant about writing this into docs

There has been quite a lot of publicity to say that an incorrectly drawn up DIY Will causes more problems than not having one. Especially if you aren't married I would say see a solicitor to get a Will done properly, because I believe your estate could go to your parents (as next of kin) rather than your DP.

You don't specify in the Will that the children have to live with XY and Z. More that X and Y have the say in what happens to them. So you could nominate your parents, who would then make the final decision on what would be best for the children IYSWIM.

In our case we have older children, so we nominated the eldest 2 as guardians for DC5.

It is difficult but does need to be done.

Go to a solicitor, don't try and do it yourself. It's relatively inexpensive compared to the hassle of what happens if the will needs to be legally sorted out in the case of a sad event happening.

We nominated family members to be legal guardians for our children but as tallulah says, they make the decisions on their behal - it doesn't mean they necessarily live with them or parent them.

It's also useful to make things as broad as possible. Our first will, we did that thing of naming certain items to go to certain people - now we find we have children we would prefer to have them. So now absolutely nothing is named to go to anyone - they will have to use their good sense and a degree of unselfishness to share out any items they would want. And everything else is shared equally.

Thanks everyone for your tips. Best crack on and get it sorted.

I agree with the above that it should be done professionally esp as you are unmarried and have children. That way you should be absolutely certain that things will happen the way you would want it to happen. You don't need to specify who will "look after" your children, just specify who you want to be guardian and they can decide what is best at the time depending on their age & who is available and willing.
We specified my sister (& her husband - now passed away) to be guardian to dd as I know that she would make sure that dd would be looked after. We didn't want hubby's family fighting for her (& our cash) and then moving her 400 miles away from everything familiar and turfing her out when she was old enough to be by herself. It is amazing how nasty some people can get when there is money / inheritance involved!