trying to handle the click events associated with an asp:menu

I'm just trying to code the click events associated with the root and leaf elements of an asp:menu, first I was using the standard events given to me by .net but when I put menus on subpages under my master page that already has a menu the click events of the menu cause the master page menu to dissapear, so I am trying jquery and I've added a cssclass to the menu and have a jquery onclick event but I cannot differentiate between parent menu clicks and child menu item clicks. The menus on the master pages are not different than a standard menu so I don't understand why I'm fighting to get this functionality to work, I'm sure microsoft could develop something easier to code than what they offer now as part of their standard toolbox menus.