The Mommy trap

A friend of mine told me about a full-time job in government that had a good salary and benefits. (Imagine!) But I did my usual, "Thanks but no thanks" response because I'm so entrenched in my life working part-time and balancing kids and other activities.
I'm sure this is a trap. My husband is a freelancer too and we could use the additional salary and while I'm doing much better financially than I have in the past, I'm not pulling in what I could bring in full-time. But the truth is, I'm so busy already trying to get the kids to their lessons and prodding them to do their homework and trying to cook, clean etc. And my house is still a horrible mess and I'm still frazzled.
Is it selfish of me to arrange my life so I can do all that? Is it stupidly short-sighted? Maybe. I'm certainly not moving forward very far in my career. The teaching is prestigious but low-paying and is basically a dead-end job unless I get a PhD and I can't bring myself to do that. The column is fun but low-paying. The freelancing at Princeton University is low paying but perhaps less challenging than I would like. Am I killing my career? Do I even have a career?
I always told myself that being a Mom comes first and I still feel that way but I'm also aware that my kids function pretty well without me. It's just the logistics of it. How would Will get to ballet or Raymond get to art? When would we do piano? I guess we'd join all those families who do those things on weekends or at night.
I guess I'd be willing to make all those sacrifices for a dream job but not for a job that made me feel trapped and frustrated. After all, I became a journalist because it's challenging and interesting.
Meanwhile, my blogging is just another excuse for me to while away time I should be using to eat lunch, work or clean my house. You've got to love that about blogging.