If you’ve raised them right, they’ll be very understanding. Everyone makes choices and having a parent stay part-time so she/he has more time with them in childhood is nothing to be ashamed of. My own kids and husband have always appreciated that I work part-time around their school/work hours and they’ve always know that choice had a financial impact. When we sat down with D about the college budget, there was no anger or resentment. She was grateful to have ANY help to be honest. Yes, she did feel a bit pressured because she didn’t want one of the huge state schools we could afford but it also gave her some time to accept that she needed either large merit or into a competitive full-needs school. She did the latter. S (high school freshman) watched big sister go through it so well prepared.
Your girls are sophomores. Like others have said, figure out what you can offer each of them. Do some research as to what that means in terms of options. Give them some names of specific colleges and how those particular schools would be possible… “this is a school you could attend, live at home and have no debt… this is a school we can afford with modest student loans and your summer earnings… this is a school where your chances at enough merit are very high… this is a school that promises to meet full need and we are in the position to pay our EFC.” They don’t have to GO to those schools but they’ll have a more concrete idea of the TYPES of schools to look at. Believe me, they WILL appreciate knowing. We know too many kids who applied to schools they could never afford, attended schools they had to leave after the first year because of the expense, or even undervalued what they could have (like only applying to local state schools they hated because they didn’t realize their stats opened doors to other options.)
In the end, you aren’t required to give your twins a college education. They should understand that it’s a kindness to help them even if it’s community college and local state transfer.