After getting the kids off to school in the morning and working until mid-afternoon, Kathy Graves, of Coal Valley, Ill., goes to her second job: driver.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a Quad-City Times series called "State of Marriage". Read the rest of the series at stateofmarriage.com.)

"I get in the car between 2:30 and 3 and sometimes I don't get done driving kids around until 7 or 8 at night," she said.

The 42-year-old mother of three is like a lot of working parents.

She starts her day early and, with her husband, Bob, they work both ends of the clock to fit in all the daily duties of parents who work outside the home. Ferrying kids to soccer and football games, to band practice and guitar lessons, working parents try to do it all - and then some.

Perhaps surprisingly, they seem to make it work pretty well, according to local therapists.

"The majority of people do OK with it," said Monica Clark, a marriage and family therapist at Psychology Health Group in Davenport. "They've figured out some kind of system or rhythm to manage it."

It is stressful, though. And, in Iowa, it's more prevalent than in the rest of the country.

Nearly 62 percent of married-couple families saw both husband and wife working outside the home in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Only four other states had higher rates.

In Illinois, it was 55 percent. The national average was 53 percent.

Iowa's rural heritage and its history as a low-wage state have previously been cited as contributors to the relatively high percentage of dual-working couples in the state. Non-married couples also have high rates of dual-working members, Census figures show.

If the traditional marriage of "Leave it to Beaver" vintage was of a husband going off to work, leaving the wife to tend to kids and household, it hasn't been that way for a long time. And for many families, particularly those in the working class, it never was that way.

"A lot of working-class, a lot of African-American women were working" in the 19th century, says Jane Simonsen, assistant professor of history and women and gender studies at Augustana College, Rock Island. Without accessible day care back then, women "really struggled," she said.

Things are easier today, though experts say the economy still needs to do more to accommodate dual-working parents. Still, for the parents themselves, it's a day-by-day challenge to manage the details of work and family life.

With six children and two full-time jobs, Shawn and Chasidy Biswell of Rock Island deal with a myriad of details daily. He works at Deere Harvester; she at John Deere Medical Group.

"We work things out together," said Chasidy. "It's definitely a team effort."

The couple has children ranging in age from 15 years to 15-month-old twins.

Chasidy said a key to survival is having the older children pitch in as soon as they can.

"When I was pregnant with the twins, my older three girls were deciding what baby they would be responsible for," she said.

Terry and Heather Harland of Buffalo, Iowa, also face the challenges a two-job household brings.

The parents of 10- and 5-year-old girls, the Harlands have worked full time throughout their 12-year marriage. In addition, Terry goes to class at night during the week to get his apprenticeship as a heating and air-conditioning service technician.

Their day starts at 5:30 a.m.

"About 9 o'clock, everybody gathers back at the same place and says good night," Heather said. "It's pretty much nonstop."

Dividing the chores, she said, is a constantly changing process. Some days, Terry does the cooking. On others, Heather mows the lawn.

It can get overwhelming, the pair said. And when it does ... they go camping.

"We spend time with family and sit back and try to take a deep breath," said Heather, a budget specialist.

Some therapists say these kinds of stresses are among the things people should talk about before getting married, along with issues such as children and money.

The idea, they said, is to start out with a realistic set of expectations before walking down the aisle.

"Make sure you are purposeful and intentional about communicating as early as you can," said John Stachula, an assistant professor of psychology at St. Ambrose University, who worked with couples in his Indiana practice before moving here.