The autobiographical book Cheaper by the Dozen was written in 1949. Since then, it has been reprinted numerous times, most recently in 2003. The book, written by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, two of the twelve children of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, is about Frank Jr. and Ernestine's recollections of growing up, in the company of ten other siblings and two high-powered engineers as parents, in a huge house in Montclair, New Jersey, around the turn of the 20th century. Much of the humor within this book is because the father of this huge family, Frank, is a good-hearted man who loves his twelve children and their antics, but is also an engineer (as is his wife Lillian) by profession, and an "efficiency expert". Frank Sr. likes to believe problems and conflicts can be solved in a sort of mechanical way, and sometimes with just one quick solution for every problem (at least that is his theory). Many funny and ironic situations arise from this questionable premise. .

             Still, as the authors of Cheaper by the Dozen recall, "Dad was happiest in a crowd, especially a crowd of kids" (p. 5). But since, as an engineer, Frank Sr. owns a scientific management company, he continually tries to apply his various principles of "scientific management" at home, with mixed results. In one incident, he does so by taking motion pictures of his children washing dishes and doing other household chores, which he calls "motion study" (p. 3) in order to study their efficiency at these tasks (or the lack thereof), and then hopefully apply what he has learned from these homemade "motion studies" to other workplace situations. .

             Frank Sr. also has each of his twelve children chart their weights and other progress each day, on a "progress and weight chart" (p. 3) he has put up on the bathroom wall, as soon as they can physically write (which is early, since the father has high expectations of his children in every respect).