| MovieClip._parent Property | Flash 4 |
| a reference to the host clip or movie containing this clip | read-only |
The _parent property stores a reference to the clip object upon whose timeline mc resides. Main movies don't support the _parent property because they are at the top level (conveniently referred to as _root). References to _root._parent return undefined. The _parent property gives us the powerful ability to manipulate clips in relation to the current clip.
Though it is possible in Flash 5 and Flash 6 to reassign the _parent property to another clip, doing so has little purpose—only the reference is changed, not the physical structure of the clips. This unintentional behavior will likely be changed in the future.
If mc resides on the main timeline of a movie, we can play the main timeline from mc using:
_parent.play();
We can also set the parent timeline's properties, as in:
_parent._alpha = 50;
The _parent property can also be used in succession; that is, we can access the _parent of a _parent, as follows:
_parent._parent.play(); // Play the clip two clips above the current clip
