# Parent and Root problems

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/parent-and-root-problems/268252
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [August 11, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/parent-and-root-problems/268252 "2008-08-11T22:22:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![RebuiltJorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/94ad74/32.png) [@RebuiltJorge](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/RebuiltJorge)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/parent-and-root-problems/268252/1 "2008-08-11T22:22:19Z")

</div>

ok so here is my problem, I have an .fla and .as file named Main.fla and Main.as respectively, I have an object called ball that I dynamically place on stage from the library like so

//code in Main.as extends MovieClip

var ball:Ball = new Ball();  
addChild(ball);

//code in Ball.as

public function Ball(){  
trace(MovieClip(parent));  
}

the object appears on stage  
however the trace returns null, like the parent doesn’t exist, any ideas
