# :parent Selector

## parent ( ) version added: 1.0

Description: Select all elements that have at least one child node (either an element or text).

This is the inverse of `:empty`.

One important thing to note regarding the use of `:parent` (and `:empty`) is that child nodes include text nodes.

The W3C recommends that the `<p>` element have at least one child node, even if that child is merely text (see http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#edef-P). Some other elements, on the other hand, are empty (i.e. have no children) by definition:`<input>`, `<img>`, `<br>`, and `<hr>`, for example.

To obtain the parents or ancestors of an existing jQuery set, see the `.parent()` and `.parents()` methods.

## Examples:

#### Example: Finds all tds with children, including text.

    <!doctype html>
    <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <meta charset="utf-8">
      <title>css demo</title>

      <style>

      td {
        width: 40px;
        background: green;
      }

      </style>

      <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>

    <table border="1">
      <tr><td>Value 1</td><td></td></tr>
      <tr><td>Value 2</td><td></td></tr>
    </table>

    <script>

    $( "td:parent" ).fadeTo( 1500, 0.3 );

    </script>

    </body>
    </html>

#### Demo: