diff -r e36d1a8d6ffc -r 9d72fd83da40 src/python/m5/SimObject.py
--- a/src/python/m5/SimObject.py	Thu Oct 17 11:53:59 2013 -0500
+++ b/src/python/m5/SimObject.py	Thu Oct 17 11:54:32 2013 -0500
@@ -784,6 +784,10 @@
         self._parent = parent
         self._name = name
 
+    # Return parent object of this SimObject, not implemented by SimObjectVector
+    def get_parent(self):
+        return self._parent
+
     # Also implemented by SimObjectVector
     def get_name(self):
         return self._name
diff -r e36d1a8d6ffc -r 9d72fd83da40 src/python/m5/params.py
--- a/src/python/m5/params.py	Thu Oct 17 11:53:59 2013 -0500
+++ b/src/python/m5/params.py	Thu Oct 17 11:54:32 2013 -0500
@@ -247,6 +247,16 @@
             a.append(v.get_config_as_dict())
         return a
 
+    # If we are replacing an item in the vector, make sure to set the
+    # parent reference of the new SimObject to be the same as the parent
+    # of the SimObject being replaced. Useful to have if we created
+    # a SimObjectVector of temporary objects that will be modified later in
+    # configuration scripts.
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        val = self[key]
+        value.set_parent(val.get_parent(), val._name)
+        super(SimObjectVector, self).__setitem__(key, value)
+
 class VectorParamDesc(ParamDesc):
     # Convert assigned value to appropriate type.  If the RHS is not a
     # list or tuple, it generates a single-element list.