[solved] jquery - How to stop mouseout event when hovering over child elements???

[eluser]umbungo[/eluser]
I have some jquery js that is triggered whilst hovering over a DIV. However, this DIV contains an image and link, and if these child elements are hovered over, the mouseout event is triggered?? how do i prevent this?? (there is also a delay involved)

Code:

$(document).ready(function() {
    var hov = '1';
    $('.class').mouseenter(function(){
        hov = '1';
        //do stuff
    });

    $('.class').mouseleave(function(){
        hov = '0';
        setTimeout(function(){
                if(hov=='0'){
                    //undo stuff
                }
        }, 300);
        $('.class').mouseenter(function(){
            clearTimeout();
        });
    });
    
});

edit: this is most noticeable to me on IE6/7. I guess i need some code around the mouseout function saying 'if child, then stop function'.. but i'm not sure how properly to do this??

much thanks to anyone who can help