Family

Dad and Mother decide together on their wedding day that they would like to have a large family. Ideally, they would like to have a dozen children - six girls and six boys. This is exactly what they get. Family is a major theme in this book. Relatives come to live with the family at various points in the novel, and the Gilbreth family goes out to visit family, traveling across the country to do so. The children are spoiled by uncles and aunts from both sides of their family.

Dad comes from a very different background than Mother. His father died when he was very young, and his mother is stern and demands the best from her children. Mother's family is polished and wealthy and ready to cater to other family members. One might expect that they would be stiff and expect the children to be on...