access properties of parent widget in Tkinter

[William Gill]

I am trying to get & set the properties of a widget's parent widget. 
What I have works, but seems like a long way around the block.  First I 
get the widget name using w.winfo_parent(), then i convert the name to a 
reference using nametowidget().

   self.nametowidget(event.widget.winfo_parent()).hasChanged= True

It works, but I can't help but think I'm missing a more direct route.  Am I?

Bill