I would take a slightly different approach to this problem.
Rather than use $scope.$parent
, I would recommend you move all of your bunny killing logic into a shared service/model.
Also, I would try to avoid referencing parent views/controllers. Referencing the parent can make it difficult to reuse your code and can be painful to debug as the project grows. It is okay for a parent to know about it's children but a child should know little to nothing about it's parent.
Here is an updated Plunk: http://plnkr.co/edit/PLDbfU8Fu7m59A42qdR6?p=preview
HTML
<body ng-controller="MainCtrl">
<p>
Dead bunnies: <strong>{{Elmer.deadWabbits}}</strong>
</p>
<div ng-controller="SimpleParentCtrl">
<button ng-click="Elmer.killTheWabbit()">Kill from simple parent gun</button>
</div>
<hr>
<div ng-switch="" on="step">
<div ng-switch-when="first" ng-controller="Step1Ctrl">
<button ng-click="Elmer.killTheWabbit()">Kill from 1 tab gun</button>
</div>
<div ng-switch-when="second">
<div ng-controller="Step2Ctrl">
<button ng-click="Elmer.killTheWabbit()">Kill from 2 tab gun</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<p>
<button ng-click="changeStep('first')">1</button> <button ng-click="changeStep('second')">2</button>
</p>
</body>
JS
angular.module('plunker', []).
service("Elmer", [function() {
this.deadWabbits = 0;
this.killTheWabbit = function() {
this.deadWabbits++;
};
}]).
controller('MainCtrl', function($scope, Elmer) {
$scope.Elmer = Elmer;
$scope.step = 'first';
$scope.changeStep = function(name){
$scope.step = name;
};
}).
controller('SimpleParentCtrl', function() {}).
controller('Step1Ctrl', function() {}).
controller('Step2Ctrl', function() {});
ng-switch
creates its own scope. Which means you really have two nested levels of scope from the parent. – Boehm