Summary:
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth ran their family like an efficient factory by their organization, decision-making, and rewards. In the novel, Frank, who is the Papa, is strict while Lillian, who is the Mama, is nice and gentle. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's way of running their family of 12 children make lots of connections to a way a factory would run. Frank and Lillian might be mom and dad but they sure ran their family in a strange way.
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth ran their family like an efficient factory by their organization, decision-making, and rewards. In the novel, Frank, who is the Papa, is strict while Lillian, who is the Mama, is nice and gentle. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's way of running their family of 12 children make lots of connections to a way a factory would run. Frank and Lillian might be mom and dad but they sure ran their family in a strange way.
A way Frank and Lillian ran their family like an efficient factory is by their organization. A way they showed organization is by their job charts. A job chart was a chart on which they would have to initial their names after doing the following things; brushing their teeth, brushing their hair, making their bed, weighing themselves and then graphing it, and after doing their homework. Dad was the one who created the job chart. Mom wanted a place to chart prayers but dad said prayers were optional. Another way they showed organization is when they were responsible. For example the oldest children are responsible for the younger children. The middle children are responsible for themselves, and mom is responsible for the babies. An example of this from my life, is when I'm at home I am supposed to take care of my younger sister. What I do to take care of her is help her on her homework and do anything that she has trouble with. Another example of this from my life is when I am at school. I am supposed to be organized, especially in Language Arts. I think organization is really important because if you are organized you will thank yourself because you won't have to find a piece of paper out of a stack of them.
Another way Frank and Lillian Gilbreth ran their family like an efficient factory is by their decision-making. They made decisions by their Family Council. The Family Council was a meeting held each Sunday after dinner about things to purchase or discuss. On their first Family Council meeting dad, who was the chairman of the Family Council, told everybody that the house and yard needed work. Dad said you may think about how you want to divide up the work. No body raised a hand. Pretty soon it was decided that the boys would do the yard work and the girls would work in the house. On their second Family Council meeting they discussed which color of a new rug should purchase. (They were going to spend $100) Mom told everybody if they could get a plain violet-colored rug. After they decided on the plain violet-colored rug the kids asked if they could get a dog with the remaining 5 dollars. Everybody wanted a dog but dad. The Family Council also helped decide who was going to do chores. For example dad said the fence needed to be painted. On pieces of paper they wrote how much money they wanted for doing the job. The lowest bidder got the job and a contract that says I will finish my job. An example of this from my life is when I play monopoly. For example if a person rolls the dice and lands on a property that nobody has, and that person doesn't want the property then the banker auctions and the person who bids the most gets the property. I think the way Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth do their decision making with a family of twelve children is great because having a family of 12 children is no easy job but they thought of a way to run their family in an easy way.
Another way Frank and Lillian Gilbreth ran their family like and efficient factory is by their rewards. Dad would give out most of the rewards. For example dad sometimes gave a reward to the first person that came at the sound of the assembly call. The assembly call meant drop everything and run to where you heard the whistle. The first person that got there first got a reward but they didn't get a reward every time. Dad also gave a reward to the fastest typist who was Ernestine. The reward she got was a typewriter. Dad even gave rewards to the fastest mental math person. He even gave a reward to Lillian jr. because she followed through on her contract to paint the fence. She got roller skates. An example of this from my life is when I do good on my quarter grades for school my parents will reward me with something. Another example is when people are playing sports on a team and they are the MVP (Most Valuable Player) they get a reward, which is usually a trophy. I think getting rewards is good because then that way you will push your self to do better than before and you will get bigger rewards for doing that.
I think Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth's way of running their family like an efficient factory, which was organization, decision making, and rewards was great. I hope other families that have a lot of children like Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth will also think of a clever way to run their family.
This is the complete article, containing 870 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
