Even if one entire income is devoted to these needs in the early years, it should be considered an investment in career and family. Work hard, long and efficiently when possible in order to be free of guilt when the children need you. Many partners develop a pattern whereby one goes to work early, even before the children wake up, while the other gets the children to school or daycare before going to work. The partner on the early shift may be able to get home correspondingly early, and supervise homework while cooking dinner, allowing the late shift partner to work into the evening. In this way, each can take advantage of precious quiet office time, while maximizing the hours in the day that children can enjoy parental attention.
All parents are anxious to maximize time with their children.
Scientists may be more anxious than most, because time is particularly precious, and maybe because anxiety is in their nature. That's why God invented voice mail. There's nothing that can't wait. An involved conversation easily derails an activity or conversation. That's why God invented voice mail.