Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, one of the 12 Gilbreth children, reflects on her parents’ differing personalities and their shared habit of using family anecdotes to illustrate their professional work in motion-time methodology. She discusses curiosity, a principle the Gilbreth household actively encouraged. Her father delighted in rewarding curious children with expensive gifts. Tom, the family’s hired man, once showed the children a cat giving birth to answer their question about where babies come from. However, Martha Bunker Gilbreth, the children’s paternal grandmother, strongly disapproved of Frank’s unconventional methods, fearing they would bring disaster. Her fears were partly justified by young Bill Gilbreth, whom she called a mischievous troublemaker; he once placed her celluloid comb on her kerosene heater, nearly causing a fire. Grandmother also worried about Ernestine’s excessive curiosity, once catching her eavesdropping at a keyhole. Frank responded to his mother’s fire concerns by designing escape routes, holding daily fire drills, and installing sand-filled fire pails throughout the house. Tom often complained about inspecting these pails, moaning that Lincoln had “freed all the slaves but one” (xv). Ernestine concludes by noting the worldwide curiosity generated by the books she co-authored with her brother Frank Jr., which have been translated into 53 languages. She shares examples of reader questions, including inquiries about her sister Mary, and affirms she does not mind the attention.

Frank Gilbreth (Dad) was a tall, heavy, self-assured man who applied his scientific management principles to both his factory work and family life. He and his wife Lillian (Mother) had 12 children because he believed anything they did together would succeed. Their Montclair, New Jersey, home functioned as a laboratory for motion study. Frank filmed the children washing dishes to analyze efficiency, awarded household jobs through a low-bid system, and installed process charts in bathrooms requiring children to initial tasks like brushing teeth and making beds. Lillian wanted to include prayers on the charts, but Frank considered them voluntary. 

Frank practiced extreme personal efficiency, buttoning his vest from bottom to top to save four seconds and using two shaving brushes simultaneously to cut 17 seconds from his shaving time. He briefly tried using two razors but abandoned the experiment after cutting his throat, complaining that bandaging it wasted two minutes. Frank loved children and believed they stayed eager to learn unlike adults. Upon returning home from trips, he would whistle a unique assembly call, summoning all children immediately. He used this call for announcements, to demonstrate efficiency to guests, or to distribute surprises like manicure sets, pocket knives, chocolate bars, automatic pencils, and wristwatches—sometimes even for the baby. The call proved practical when a bonfire spread to the house and the family evacuated in 14 seconds. During the commotion, a neighbor expressed relief the Gilbreths’ house was burning and told his wife not to call the fire department.

Frank’s surprises included candy, toys, cameras, hens, and two sheep meant to trim the lawn that died from saddle sores and excessive handling. Before moving from Providence to Montclair, Frank misled the family about their new house, calling it a rundown hovel. He stopped first at an abandoned wreck, pretending it was their home. Lillian responded with dutiful acceptance while the children, including Ernestine, Martha, and Lill, expressed horror. Frank then revealed his joke and drove them to the actual house at 68 Eagle Rock Way, a beautiful 14-room estate. 

A year earlier, Frank had bought the family’s first automobile, a gray Pierce Arrow he nicknamed Foolish Carriage. Despite being a machinery expert, he never understood the car’s mechanics; he drove badly and very fast, terrifying Lillian. Because it was a right-hand-drive car, one of the children would typically sit in the front left seat as lookout. The children developed additional safety measures, assigning other lookouts to watch for traffic from all directions. 

Frank played a car-related prank on each child, telling them look for a bird in the engine and blaring the loud horn in each child’s ear as they leaned over. After the car broke down one day, six-year-old Bill turned the prank on Frank. While Frank’s head was inside the hot engine, Bill sneaked into the driver’s seat and blew the horn. Frank jumped, hit his head, and burned his wrist, exploding in momentary anger before admitting it was a good joke. The story became one of Frank’s favorite anecdotes.

When Frank suggested a car ride, everyone went. Each older child supervised a younger sibling: Anne watched Dan, Ernestine watched Jack, and Martha watched Bob. Anne, as eldest, also oversaw everyone. Lillian managed baby Jane Gilbreth, while the intermediate children—Frank Jr., Bill, Lill, and Fred Gilbreth—were self-sufficient. 

Lillian, a skilled psychologist, managed the brood without being a disciplinarian. She called roll before every trip because Frank insisted on it after two incidents. Once, Dan had been left aboard the liner Leviathan, delaying its departure. Another time, Frank Jr. had been left at a New London, Connecticut, restaurant. When Frank returned at night to retrieve him, a woman in a booth propositioned him by asking whether he was interested in a “naughty little girl”; flustered, he blurted out he was actually looking for a “naughty little boy” (16). Frank Jr. was found safely in the kitchen, eating ice cream with the proprietor’s daughter. 

Driving around in the topless car, Frank made a spectacle, slowing down and blowing horns. When crowds asked how he fed so many children, he would reply that “they come cheaper by the dozen, you know” (18). He used this line to charm toll-takers and ticket sellers, often gaining free passage. In Hartford, Connecticut, a woman mistook the family for an orphanage because of the girls’ uniform-like dusters. Lillian said the comment was the last straw. The mortified girls, led by Ernestine, declared they would never wear dusters again. When Frank objected to the cost, Lillian sided with the girls, and Frank cheerfully conceded.

Frank distrusted road signs and the Automobile Blue Book, preferring his own sense of direction, which inevitably led to getting lost. He would blame Lillian for misreading directions, sometimes asking Anne to read instead, but would ignore her too. When asking locals for directions, he often drove the opposite way. When he got hopelessly lost, Lillian would signal lunchtime by giving Jane her bottle. Frank used mealtimes for educational lessons on nature, science, and engineering. When Lillian enhanced his factual teaching with imaginative stories that made subjects unforgettable, Frank would look at her with adoration. Before leaving picnic sites, Frank insisted on thorough cleanup, often having children march in a line to collect trash. They frequently took home more refuse than they brought, including whiskey bottles left by others. He repeatedly criticized wasted apple peels and modeled eating entire apples, including core and seeds. Frank and Lillian considered public restrooms unsanitary, so the family used the woods instead. Frank coined euphemisms for these stops: “visiting Mrs. Murphy” and “examining the rear tire” (26). On dark drives home, Bill would sit behind Frank and mimic Lillian’s voice, whispering warnings while grabbing his arm. Frank was secretly proud of Bill’s imitations. The family sang in harmony during these drives, and Lillian would sometimes tell the children this was the happiest time in the world.

Frank was born in Fairfield, Maine. His father, John Hiram Gilbreth, had died when Frank was three. His mother, Martha Bunker Gilbreth, moved the family to Andover, Massachusetts, and then to Boston to ensure quality education. Though expected to attend MIT, Frank took a bricklayer’s helper job to ease family finances. His foreman found him exasperating because of constant efficiency suggestions. Frank noticed no two bricklayers worked identically and concluded one method must be best. Within a year, he invented a scaffold that kept materials level with the wall’s top, dramatically increasing his speed. Despite mockery, the foreman adopted it for all workers. Frank rapidly advanced to foreman, then superintendent, then started his own contracting business. By 27, he was running an international firm. 

Lillian came from a wealthy Oakland, California, family and was a Phi Beta Kappa psychology graduate from the University of California. They met in Boston during her European tour. Demonstrating the sexism of the time categorizing women seeking higher education, a newspaper noted that “Although a graduate […] the bride is nonetheless an extremely attractive young woman” (31). 

After moving the family to the large Montclair home, Frank and Lillian established a Family Council to get children to help handyman Tom Grieves and cook Mrs. Cunningham voluntarily. At the first Sunday meeting, Frank appointed himself chairman and ruled Anne out of order when she objected. The children refused to suggest work divisions and instead proposed hiring more help. Lillian explained hiring household staff would require eliminating allowances and entertainment. The council then passed a motion assigning age-appropriate chores. At the next meeting, Martha moved that the council approve Lillian’s dining room rug purchase. The children voted for a cheaper floral rug to hide crumbs and save sweeping motions. Bill then moved to spend the five-dollar savings on a collie puppy. Frank argued passionately against it, fearing where council spending might lead, but the motion passed with only Frank dissenting and Lillian abstaining. In later years, as the dog became the nuisance Frank predicted, he reminded Lillian he had voted against it.