---

Hi Sandy,

Gerard and I had a look at the pictures and we agreed that it should be a tachinid fly. Digging into some books did not change our opinion. The flies resemble the subfamily Tachininae but we are by no means experts in this family.
Tachinids mostly parasitise on caterpillars, but some on true bugs, leatherjackets, beetles larvae or other arthropds. So there is no way they can be harmful to your family, other than that they are 'scary'. Perhaps you had a 'plague' of moths recently?