Cocos2d: CCCallFuncO with target as parent - cocos2d-iphone

Question

I can't seem to get CCCallFuncO working with actionWithTarget set to (JoinedMapsLayer*)self.parent
JoinedMapsLayer is the parent node that a sprite class gets added to.
Inside the sprite class I have a method:
-(void) playAction:(NSString*)name withMessagePart:(NSString *)messagePart {
id displayMessageBox = [CCCallFuncO actionWithTarget:(JoinedMapsLayer*)self.parent
selector:#selector(displayMessageBox:)
object:[NSString stringWithFormat:messagePart]];
if([name isEqualToString:#"shiver"]){
id a1 = [CCMoveTo actionWithDuration:.05 position:ccp(self.sprite.position.x+2, self.sprite.position.y)];
id a2 = [CCMoveTo actionWithDuration:.05 position:ccp(self.sprite.position.x-4, self.sprite.position.y)];
id a3 = [CCMoveTo actionWithDuration:.05 position:ccp(self.sprite.position.x+4, self.sprite.position.y)];
id a4 = [CCMoveTo actionWithDuration:.05 position:ccp(self.sprite.position.x-2, self.sprite.position.y)];
[self.sprite runAction:[CCSequence actions:a1,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a2,a3,a4,displayMessageBox, nil]];
}
else if([name isEqualToString:#"spin"]){
id a1 = [CCRotateBy actionWithDuration:.5 angle:360];
[self.sprite runAction:[CCSequence actions:a1,displayMessageBox, nil]];
}
}
It runs the actions just fine on the sprite, but I'm trying to get it to call a method in the parent node. I have a NSLog in there to check, and nothing happens. Any obvious reasons why?
In my parent node's init the class is added to a mutable array
HummingClass *hummingChar = [[HummingClass alloc] init];
[characterArr addObject:hummingChar]
And I access the class later on like:
HummingClass *hummingChar = [characterArr objectAtIndex:interactionIndex];
Interesting thing is that it doesn't crash with self.parent, so I'm thinking I'm not pointing to the parent node correctly. In the objects header I have
#import "JoinedMapsLayer.h"
#class JoinedMapsLayer
edit: even if I do a regular method call like this, it won't work:
[(JoinedMapsLayer*)self.parent displayMessageBox:#"whatever"];

Answer 1

I figured it out with the help of something awful forums. If a sprite is added to an array, you have to assign the parent property manually.
In init in JoinedMapsLayer, I make a temporary pointer to an array index:
tempHummingChar.parent = self;