beginner question, function returning object.

[bambam]

I started with ths:
------------------------------
def open_pipe():
    pipe=PIPE()
    print pipe
    return pipe

pipe=open_pipe()
pipe.parent = self.parent
print pipe
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It didn't do what I wanted: when I printed the pipe the second time it was 
not the same object as the first time.

So I changed it to this:
def open_pipe():
    pipe=PIPE()
    print pipe
    return pipe

pipe = None
pipe=open_pipe(pipe)
pipe.parent = self.parent
print pipe

It still doesn't do what I wanted: I can't assign the parent property 
because pipe type is None.

I'm not sure enough of what I am doing to tell if I have another error in my 
code causing the problem. Is either of these examples supposed to work as 
shown? Is it clear that either example is obviously wrong?