# Make Children Controller Aware of Parent

**URL:** <https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-children-controller-aware-of-parent/1041>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [April 19, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-children-controller-aware-of-parent/1041 "2013-04-19T23:41:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![superlou](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/superlou/32/14585_2.png) [@superlou](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/superlou)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-children-controller-aware-of-parent/1041/1 "2013-04-19T23:41:47Z")

</div>

When using the render helper, is there a way to pass more than one binding to the controller? For example, i want to `{{render ItemChildrenController children}}`, but i’d like the ItemChildrenController to also have a reference to the Item? Something like `{{render ItemChildrenController children parentBinding=model}}.`

Or, another tactic: Is there a way to intercept the model passed by render during ArrayController’s init so I could call `{{render ItemChildrenController item}}` and have the array controller setup the content from `item.get('children')`?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![towerhe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/towerhe/32/14483_2.png) [@towerhe](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/towerhe)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-children-controller-aware-of-parent/1041/2 "2013-04-20T16:47:57Z")

</div>

You can have a try with the `needs` API.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![superlou](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.emberjs.com/superlou/32/14585_2.png) [@superlou](https://discuss.emberjs.com/u/superlou)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://discuss.emberjs.com/t/make-children-controller-aware-of-parent/1041/3 "2013-04-20T17:02:53Z")

</div>

I’m currently using the needs api, and it works for my situation, but does that only work if the parent controller is a singleton?