In Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Frank Gilbreth Sr., an efficiency engineer, and his children each had epiphanies that changed their views on a particular subject. Frank Sr. realized he had a son that would continue the Gilbreth family name. All of his children realized that their father only wanted everything to run efficiently because he knew that he would die someday soon and without efficient children, his wife would be left with a chaotic household. When Frank Sr. and Lillian were just beginning to have children, Frank blatantly declared that he and Lillie would have no boys. He had “a hunch that the Gilbreth name, of which he was terribly proud, would cease to exist with him” (Gilbreth Carey …show more content…
Before the children had their epiphany, all of the children believed that their father, Frank Sr., wanted to make the house efficient through instruction programs to test out his theories and then apply the theories at work (Gilbreth Carey and Gilbreth 2). Yet, his need for efficiency was for much more than his work. When Frank Sr. was dying of a bad heart, his children finally realized that their father’s “bad heart was one of principal reasons for Dad’s home instruction programs. It was also why he had organized the house on an efficiency basis, so that it would operate smoothly without supervision” (Gilbreth Carey and Gilbreth 203). The Gilbreth children also realized that their father had set up the house on an efficiency basis because “he knew a load was going to be thrown on Mother [once he died], and he wanted to lessen it as much as he could” (Gilbreth Carey and Gilbreth 203). After this epiphany, the children’s view of their father changed. They no longer saw their father as the man who put all his time into perfecting theories for work; they saw their father as the man who cared for his wife and children so much that he spent his last few years perfecting an efficient household, so his wife could handle their chaotic family. Because of the Gilbreth children’s epiphany, their view toward their