We have dependent children, and we homeschool. (Meaning the death of either of us creates huge disruption in terms of lifestyle for the children, as well as the obvious emotional trauma)
We both have life insurance sufficient to give the surviving spouse a freehold house and one year's worth of expenses - this means there is time to grieve and sort out what the hell to do with the kids' education and family income going forward.
Before trimming the life insurance, you need to consider the event of you *both* dying and who will have custody of your children, what expenses they may incur as a result (would *they* need to move house to fit everyone in?!). Our insurance money will get paid to a family trust, and the family member who is named as a testamentary guardian is nominated as a Trustee of the trust in our Wills.
We were fortunate to buy the initial policies with our first child when we were in our mid-twenties and in perfect health. We've kept the same policy since then, just accepting the 'free' 5% increase most years since then, which has kept us more or less up with our increasing costs and house value (Not actually free, in that we have an increase in premium with it, but we don't have to resubmit health information etc to get it). We wouldn't have taken the 5% this year, except with expecting baby number 4, we've delayed our FI dates considerably by buying a bigger house and taking on more mortgage than we've ever had. In talking with other people approximately our age and life-stage, getting a life insurance policy *now* would be much more expensive for us.
If we didn't have children, I doubt we'd have life insurance at all - disability perhaps, but not life.