It is 7 a.m., and Rebekah Guest answers the cries of her almost 2-year-old daughter, Jessica. Guest tends to her needs and stumbles to the kitchen to start working on the dirty dishes from the night before and fixes breakfast.

A few minutes later, her husband, Bill, gets up, cursing the fact there is never enough sleep. Working an evening shift at the Joseph F. Smith Building as a building supervisor, Bill Guest often does not come home until after midnight.

After he tends to their other daughter, 3-month-old Bradlei, he sits with his family for the usual oatmeal breakfast. Then Bill Guest is out the door for school and back by noon to spend an hour or two with his daughters and wife, perhaps a minute of homework, and then off to work while his wife nurtures their two daughters.

According to the most recent BYU fact file on demographics, 25 percent of the BYU student body is married, and many in that group have children. Like the Guest family, many struggle to juggle family time, school and work through tough financial years.

Bill said he only gets one to two hours of quality time with his family during the week.

"On the weekends, all day Saturday is spent with the family and most of the day on Sunday," said Bill Guest. "I usually don't have time to do homework. I try to squeeze it in on the weekends."

Often mothers sacrifice a lot to nurture and care for their children.

"I found that I had to sacrifice not only school, but also my personal schedule," Rebekah Guest said. "I'm taking independent study classes through BYU now, and I'm hoping to be able to get on campus next year, so Bill and I should be done around the same time."

Because so many can relate to the Guest's situation, professors in the School of Family Life devote time outside of class in studying correlations between child growth and time parents spend with their children.

Laura Walker, assistant professor in the School of Family Life, conducts research on families with a focus on adolescent development. Being a young mother of two herself, she understands the dilemma and sacrifice the Guests face.

"If these couples can manage extra time with the family in these few years at school, it will greatly benefit the child," Walker said. "But more education tends to lead to flexible careers. I saw a mother once who had a baby monitor in the class and she was out in the hall listening and taking notes so she would not disrupt lecture with her baby. That is dedication."

Walker recognizes the great discipline and dedication these married couples have who are at still students.

"When you are forced to balance your life, you are disciplined," Walker said. "These qualities of discipline and balance will be applied to family and various life situations in the future."

Jenet Jacob, assistant professor in the School of Family Life, also studies the various roles of families, mainly focusing on the mother's role.

"There has to be a lot of flexibility in helping one another's roles," Jacob said. "Being flexible brings forth less rigidity in role switching."

Jacob said every family needs to create simple activities that will foster an environment of well being for the children.

"Little things make such a difference," Jacob said. "Dinner, prayer, family developmental time and evening bedtime rituals such as reading will give a child the ability to truly feel secure."

When it comes to the pressures and stress of a mother, Jacob warns the mothers of what may seem to be an overwhelming experience at first.

"We woman have a strong sense that we must accomplish everything," Jacob said. "There is a lot of wisdom in sequencing things. Just because you aren't working full time, or working on a masters doesn't mean you won't in the future."

Adding to those thoughts is assistant professor Erin Holmes, also in the School of Family Life. Focusing a lot of her research on the role of fathers, Holmes explained the struggles males may go through in raising a new family, along with pressures of good grades and work.

"Dad's can feel they don't know what they are doing because of school and work," Holmes said. "If mothers can offer instruction and accept his help when he offers it, that can be very helpful. That implies flexibility and patience which allows the husband to grow."

Holmes added that often, fathers will feel overwhelmed not in the first six months, but in the six to 18 month marks.

"Fathers expect things will go back to normal after a few months and they don't," Holmes said. "After six months, they tend to struggle because things aren't changing."

For the Guests and many other families attending BYU, all three professors agreed that prayer is useful in dealing with the stresses that come with being a young family.