So, in the upState, for example, the following code…

`this.parent as DisplayObjectContainer`

would evaulate to null? WTF, how is that possible?

Joe: interesting and informative as your comment is, it doesn’t really address Tyler’s point that a SimpleButton contains DisplayObjects, but also can’t possibly, because of it not being a DisplayObjectContainer. MovieClip is a DisplayObjectContainer, but SimpleButton is _not_ a MovieClip. Not these days anyway.

In AS2, the Button class was really treated as a MovieClip by the Flash Player (AVM1), even though there was no MovieClip API support. You could simulate a custom Button with very little effort by creating a MovieClip and designating three frames by their “magic frame labels”: “_up”, “_over”, “_down” and the hit state by setting “this._hitArea = this.hit_mc;” on the first frame of the clip. Create a button event for the MovieClip, and it would magically act just like a Button.

This functionality was carried over into AS3, (see the MovieClip.ButtonMode property), which makes me think that SimpleButton is treated like a specialized MovieClip by the Flash Player, without access to the MovieClip API.

Try this:
1. Create an MC with three frames, labelled “_up”, “_over”, “_down”.
2. Create another layer with a stop() action across all three frames.
3. Add this code to the main timeline:
btn_mc.buttonMode = true;
btn_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onBtnPress);
function onBtnPress(evt:MouseEvent):void { trace(“Button Pressed!”); }

And you have effectively demonstrated that a SimpleButton is in fact a MovieClip, but without access to the MovieClip API. Without access to that API, SimpleButton effectively extends InteractiveObject, which is why you get the funky results on child objects.