Greatest I Am said,
"If the point is that God should punish your children for what you do, then it is a wrong headed policy.
If you die in dept, should your creditors go get the maney that your children have? No."
You must also consider that it was during a different time where things were handled differently if someone were hung on a cross today for any crime the country would be persecuted. In the old testiment they used the patriach system aka the family. The family was ruled by the father what ever he sowed he reaped and if he died the children would then reap it. The it could be anything good or bad; harvest, land, wealth, livestock, slaves, ect. and even punishment.
"People call me strange does that make me a stranger
My best friend was born in a manger"