When I am using focus parent ($mod+a) I find I am unable to return the focus to the child that had it before. Instead focus remains on the parent. To remove focus from the parent I have to manually click inside a child container or switch to another workspace and back again. What can I use instead?
un-focus parent
i3
In order to focus the child, you can use the command focus child. It seems that it is not bound by default, but you can just add your own binding. For examplebindsym $mod+z focus child