removeMovieclip but mc itself should stay

Hi,

I have a small problem with removeMovieclip.

Lets say i have a movieclip Main_mc wich has three mc’s in it child1_mc, child2_mc and child3_mc.

When i use removeMovieClip(_root.Main_mc), everything is removed even Main_mc.

I know i can use removeMovieClip(_root.Main_mc.child1_mc), removeMovieClip(_root.Main_mc.child1_mc), removeMovieClip(_root.Main_mc.child1_mc)

But i don’t know in advance how many objects are in Main_mc

So genarely i d like to be able to empty Main_mc so that everything that is inside will be removed but Main_mc has to stay.

Does anyone have an idea on how to achieve this.

Thanks in advance,

Gosa