going in in new for cChild and just calling sub_passed_to_child yes in passed_sub $oParent_ref is cParent=HASH(0xf18038) $oParent_ref->{test_att} is 3 #### ##OLD $self->{sub_passed_to_child}( $self->{parent_obj_ref} ); $self->{sub_passed_to_child}->( $self ); ##New, explicitly de-ref the sub #### sub passed_sub { print "yes in passed_sub\n"; my ($child) = @_; # I don't like using shift here.. print $child->{parent_obj_ref}{test_att}; # 3