I would have to see a video to see what you are doing because what you are describing is not the way it should work.
If you parent one object to another then the childs coordinates become relative to the parent.
What it sounds like to me is that you have rotated the parent object lets say around z. Now if you move the child object along its GLOBAL x axis it will be changing position in both x and y relative to the parents local axis. If you move B along its LOCAL or OBJECT x axis its coordinates will only change in x.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675
Last edited by ctbram; 01-09-2011 at 07:09 AM.