Demographic and social changes were beginning to affect attitudes to toys and children's play throughout the 19th-century. The decreasing size of families meant that children had fewer siblings and that toys became an important diversion and source of entertainment. Rising living standards and wages meant that parents had more disposable income. Middle-class children remained in education for longer periods, with the implication that they had less time to make their own toys, and were more reliant on commercially manufactured toys. By the late 19th-century, parents were beginning to appreciate the special needs of childhood and that toys were more than just the preparation for the real world, but that they could also offer a retreat from mundane realities.