Flex :: 4 - Multiple Instances Of A Custom Component Listening The Same Event Of A Parent

In short: I need an event listener in a custom component so all its instances (without editing them) react at the same time, fired by a dispatched event in its parent container. In detail: I have a custom component with Tab navigator. (The tabs are intended to show different preferences for different Languages.) I have a button bar with buttons for all the languages. There are a lot of instances of the custom component.

I want to click in a button of the languages bar and get ALL the instances switched to the same tab (the custom component contains the logic to change the tab). I can do it by adding the event listener for EACH INSTANCE of the custom component, so it calls an internal function that changes the tab. But it seems to be very coupled, isn't it? I wonder if it can be done in the master CLASS of the component, so it listen for events in its parent container, whichever it is. In my mind this code shoud work, but it doesn't (obviously ill'use a custom event to pass the new language value): this.parent.addEventListener("lang_change", this.change_tab); This way I can just drop an instance of the component, and see it working for itself.