It is the follow-up to their book Cheaper by the Dozen (1948), and covers the period after Frank Gilbreth, Sr. died.

The title is based on the line "Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes" in the nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" and alludes to the marriages of the Gilbreth sisters: "It was apparent that in order to get rings on their fingers, belles would have to be on their toes.

This book is also the first place where the absence of the second oldest child, Mary Gilbreth, is explained; she died of diphtheria in 1912, at age five.

Ernestine and Frank decided to share the royalties from the books and movies evenly among their mother and siblings.

[2] Belles on Their Toes was made into a 1952 motion picture starring Myrna Loy as Lillian Gilbreth.