Torn between two passions

I'm having my first-ever 'career goal crisis'! This is scary. Good, but scary. It's getting close to decision-making time and I'm getting too fucking old to go screwing up now.

I'll be honest. Never worked a full day in my life. Sure, I've worked long-arse shifts, but I've only ever been in casual or part-time employment, in shitty retail or hospitality jobs, and floated around after finishing school alternating between the dole and dead-end jobs to get some extra cash because I had no idea where I wanted to go or who I wanted to be as a 'grown-up'.
Actually, that's not entirely true - I knew I wanted to be a wife and mum, but that shit doesn't pay so great. 'Career-wise', I was clueless.

A few years passed. I got married, had the girls, settled into adult life (as I know it) and decided that I wanted to be a midwife! I love babies. I love pregnancy. I love being an advocate of natural, unmedicalised birth and educating expectant and new mothers, and what better way to get my point across and change people's lives, than to be there throughout pregnancy and holding their hand in the delivery room as they bring new life into this world?
Yes, this was where I wanted to go. It's gonna be tough, but I've gotta do it. I need a job. No. Not a job. A CAREER. Something that fulfills, challenges and stimulates me as well as paying the bills. Something my mother would be proud of.

I've made plans. Wait until the kids are a little older. Do the STEPS course externally.
Except I can't. I know how useless I am, and it's been a long time since I was in school. I can't study at home, I need a classroom and a teacher breathing down my neck to make sure I get my shit together and hand my work in on time. Always did. Because I'm lazy.
So I'm just waiting for a spot at daycare to come up for Squirtle next year so I can begin doing the STEPS course and move on from there into nursing, and then a post-grad course on midwifery.


All set, right?

Except...

Today I went and got my nails done. For the first time since my year 12 prom (yes, we call it a prom where I live, thanks to the US Marines stationed here back in the 50's). And they're fantastic! As a stay-at-home mama who's always elbow-deep in soapy water and muddy children (don't ask me where the mud comes from, I still can't work it out), my nails are NEVER nice.
While treating myself to my basic French with black tips, the tech and I got to talking shop. I never managed to finish my beauty therapy cert at TAFE, but I was an ace nail tech - just never got the qualification to say so. It was fun, it was easy, it was interesting and awesome and I want to do it properly. Every day.
The tech said that they were always looking for new staff (the store opened recently and only has a few girls working) and that they provided on-the-job training...

And now it's got me thinking.
I could do this. A lot easier than getting into midwifery. It wouldn't require shitty shiftwork, I could indulge my creative side and let's face it, there's a whole lot less politics involved in bloody nail art than there is in women's and children's rights and the medical profession.

So now what do I do?

I'm thinking, enrol in the STEPS course anyway, try to get some part-time work at the nail bar and get certified - that way I have both options on the table and at least a whole year to decide where I'd be happier in the long term.
I can't wait for the Boss to get home so I can chew his ear off about this... it's exciting.
I've never had options.

Never.

I'm smart. Smart enough to be 'somebody'. I fluked right through school with a B+ average with depression, a drug addiction, and far more attention paid to boys, makeup and getting fucked-up drunk every weekend than I did to my studies. But I did it. So I know I can get through four (or more) years of hard-core university and spending my holidays doing work placement for credits and experience...
but on the other hand, I've got a family now. While I want to help other families and support them through the most life-changing and important times of their lives, I simply don't have the freedom to put my own family on the backburner while I dedicate myself to others. Being a midwife pays better, but what if the pressure's just too much? The Boss is already shirty at the thought of having to get home from work and be full-time Dad three nights a week while I'm at night courses... will he be able to handle me being a full-time nursing student? I don't know.
Maybe it would just be 'easier' for me to be a nail tech and earn a piss-ant living decorating fake nails at $60 a pop. But would I always feel like I'm wasting myself on a superficial job because I was too lazy or scared to do a few years of hard slog to get to a really good place?

Ahhhh, I'm doing my own head in right now.
Just kill me.

What the fuck would you do if you were in my shoes?? Any advice or suggestion is sooo welcome.