Cant use parent to access vars on root

programming flash
1

I have a few variables on the root of my timeline. They are set to nothing right now:


/**************************************
* vars to send to mysql
*****************************************/
var title:String;
var description:String;
var segtitle:String;
var location:String;
var date:String;
var rights;
var keywords:String;

I am inside a movieclip and I want to set those variables to whatever is in the text fields so i did(when they click submit):


        this.parent.title = titlefield.text;
        this.parent.description = descfield.text;
        this.parent.segtitle = segfield.text;
        this.parent.location = locationfield.text;
        this.parent.date = datefield.text;
        this.parent.rights = gr1.selectedData;
        this.parent.keywords = searchfield.text;

when I compile, I get a bunch of these errors:

1119: Access of possibly undefined property title through a reference with static type flash.display:DisplayObjectContainer.

any idea?