Published in 1948, Cheaper by the Dozen is a humorous memoir by siblings Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The book chronicles their unconventional childhood in Montclair, New Jersey, as two of 12 children raised by parents who were pioneering efficiency experts. The authors’ father, Frank B. Gilbreth, treats the family home as a laboratory, applying the principles of scientific management and motion study to every aspect of domestic life, from bathing to dishwashing. This experiment in domestic engineering leads to a series of comedic and chaotic episodes as the family navigates the early 20th century. The memoir explores Turning Family Life into a Laboratory, Discipline as Affectionate Spectacle, and how Modernity Testing Family Order.

The authors’ parents, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, were influential industrial engineers; Lillian, who held a PhD in psychology, is celebrated as a pioneer for women in engineering. The book was an immediate bestseller and was followed by a similarly successful sequel, Belles on Their Toes (1950). Immensely popular, Cheaper by the Dozen has been translated into more than 50 languages and adapted into two films, a 1950 version starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy, and a 2003 remake with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt that has almost nothing to do with the original memoir.

This guide refers to the 2019 Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition.

Content Warning: The source text features depictions of racism, sexism, cursing, sexual harassment, and death. The source material also features frequent depictions of children’s corporal punishment, which is presented as humorous and non-abusive, in keeping with early 20th century understanding, but which may be disturbing to 21st century readers. 

Plot Summary

The authors, Frank Jr. and Ernestine, introduce their parents, Frank B. Gilbreth (Dad) and Lillian M. Gilbreth (Mother), who were pioneering industrial engineers specializing in motion study. Frank applied his efficiency principles to his family of 12 children, treating their Montclair, New Jersey, home as a laboratory. He filmed them washing dishes to find the one that aligned with his catchphrase “One Best Way” (168), awarded jobs based on the children’s lowest bid, and installed bathroom charts to track chores. His personal time-saving methods included buttoning his vest from the bottom up and using two shaving brushes. Frank blew a loud, shrill whistle to assemble all the children instantly. This assembly call was used for everything from investigating minor infractions to distributing surprise gifts. Its effectiveness was proven when a bonfire got out of control, and the family evacuated the house in a record 14 seconds.

The family car was a gray Pierce Arrow nicknamed “Foolish Carriage.” Though an expert on machinery, Frank was a terrible driver, terrifying Lillian and the children with his speed and lack of situational awareness. To compensate, the children acted as lookouts, shouting warnings from all sides of the car. A family joke involved Frank pretending there was a “birdie” in the engine, then blasting the horn in the ear of any child bending over to look for it. The prank backfired when six-year-old Bill did the same to Frank, causing Frank to lose his temper before appreciating the joke. Family outings were organized chaos, beginning with a mandatory roll call after Frank twice left a child behind. The sight of the family in the car was a public spectacle; when asked how he fed so many children, Frank’s standard reply was, “Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know” (18). After a bystander in Hartford mistook them for an orphanage, Lillian allowed the girls to stop wearing their uniform-like duster coats. Frank’s refusal to follow maps often led to unplanned picnics, which he used as educational opportunities.

Frank’s background as a self-made man, rising from a bricklayer’s helper to a successful contractor, is detailed, as is his courtship of Lillian, a psychologist from a wealthy California family. Together, the parents established a Family Council, modeled on an employer-employee board, to assign chores and make decisions. The children quickly learned to use the council to their advantage, voting to buy a collie puppy over Frank’s sole objection. Frank also initiated several home education projects to eliminate “unavoidable delay” (23). He installed Victrola record players in the bathrooms to play French and German language records. He taught the children touch typing in two weeks using a white typewriter with blank key caps, rapping their heads with a pencil for mistakes. At dinner, he quizzed them on mental arithmetic, a skill for which three-year-old Jack had a surprising talent. Frank’s only teaching failure occurred when his attempt to build a cement bird bath crumbled into dust because he’d used too much sand.

Frank disdained organized religion, driving the family to Sunday school but refusing to go inside. His lack of religious affiliation did not prevent a friend from jokingly referring a birth control advocate, Mrs. Mebane, to Lillian. Mrs. Mebane arrived hoping to recruit Mother to lead the local chapter of the Birth Control League. Lillian called Frank into the room, who then whistled the assembly call. When the entire brood came running, a shocked Mrs. Mebane learned the family had 12 children and quickly departed, telling them, “Shame on you! And within eighteen miles of national headquarters” (63). During World War I, while Frank was stationed at Fort Sill, Lillian took seven of the children to visit her formal, quiet family, the Mollers, in Oakland, California. The children’s initial good behavior ended during a tea party when they deliberately got soaked by a lawn sprinkler.

Following a family-wide bout of measles, a doctor insisted the children’s tonsils must be removed. Frank, who had become interested in applying motion study to surgery, saw an opportunity. He arranged to film the operations in a makeshift operating room at home. During the procedures, a mix-up occurred when the doctor, knowing that one child’s tonsils were fine but confusing the healthy Ernestine with Martha, anesthetized Ernestine but proceeded with the operation anyway. Martha, who did need the operation, was then brought home from her aunt’s house to have hers removed as well. Frank, attempting to set a Spartan example, had his own tonsils removed with only a local anesthetic but found the experience excruciating. Later, he discovered that the videographer, Mr. Coggin, had forgotten to remove the lens cap, so none of the operations had been filmed.

Summers were spent at the family’s Nantucket cottage, which was flanked by two lighthouses Frank purchased. One of these was nicknamed “The Shoe,” after the children’s poem about the old woman who lives in one with too many children. Frank’s attempts to teach Lillian to swim were a recurring failure, as she sank in defiance of Archimedes’ principle. He used the cottage walls for “visual education” (112), painting the Morse code alphabet, astronomy charts, and symbols for his 17 Therbligs, or basic units of motion. After buying a catboat, the Rena, Frank transformed into a stern sea captain while sailing, referring to his children as “landlubberly scum” (115) and administering “flogging with a piece of rope” (116) for mistakes.

As the older girls reached high school during the 1920s Jazz Age, they clashed with Frank over modern fashions like bobbed hair, short skirts, and silk stockings. Frank jokingly threatened to send them to a convent but slowly relented on most issues, though he remained firm against makeup. His career as a chaperone for their dates was short-lived, as he was mortified to become a beloved mascot at high school dances. The younger siblings, resentful of their older sisters’ new social lives, delighted in sabotaging their dates. In one memorable incident, they trapped one of Ernestine’s suitors, Motorcycle Mac, in a cherry tree after catching him peeping in her window and pretended they were going to set the tree on fire.

It is revealed that Frank had a serious heart condition, a fact he hid from the children. He had been secretly preparing the family for his eventual death by implementing his efficiency systems to make the household self-sufficient. On June 14, 1924, while on the phone with Lillian from the train station, Dad had a fatal heart attack. Following his death, Lillian found his letter instructing that his brain be sent to Harvard for study, and she scattered his ashes at sea. She called a meeting of the Family Council and revealed their precarious financial situation. She offered the children a choice: move to her family’s home in California or stay together in Montclair while she took over Frank’s business and fulfilled his speaking engagements in Europe. The children unanimously voted to stay and immediately began organizing the household to support her. The book concludes with Frank’s philosophy on how to use time saved through efficiency: “For work, if you love that best […] For education, for beauty, for art, for pleasure […] For mumblety-peg, if that’s where your heart lies” (207).