Which is better: increasing charitable giving to one's children beyond their obligatory maintenance, or giving charity to the poor and needy?

Giving charity to relatives is better than giving it to others, whether they are among those whose maintenance is obligatory or not. And maintenance itself, if the one spending it intends it as such, becomes charity, for the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "If a man spends on his family, intending it for the sake of Allah, it will be reckoned as charity for him." Furthermore, the best dinars a man spends are those he spends on his family. The Ummah has unanimously agreed that giving charity to relatives is better than giving it to strangers, and this includes those whose maintenance is obligatory and those for whom it is not. The obligatory maintenance for children must be sufficient to provide for them and make them self-sufficient, and anything beyond that is considered charity.