diff --git a/AUTHORS.md b/AUTHORS.md
index d9c6d2d..471cad5 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.md
+++ b/AUTHORS.md
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ The following developers have contributed major code to bling:
  * [HumblePresent](https://github.com/HumblePresent)
  * [Kasper24](https://github.com/Kasper24)
  * [undefinedDarkness](https://github.com/undefinedDarkness)
+ * [eylles](https://github.com/eylles)
diff --git a/docs/module/swal.md b/docs/module/swal.md
index ae339fc..0b3fed6 100644
--- a/docs/module/swal.md
+++ b/docs/module/swal.md
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ bling.module.window_swallowing.toggle() -- toggles window swallowing
 
 ### Theme Variables
 ```lua
-theme.dont_swallow_classname_list   = {"firefox", "Gimp"} -- list of class names that should not be swallowed
-theme.dont_swallow_filter_activated = true                -- whether the filter above should be active
+theme.parent_filter_list   = {"firefox", "Gimp"} -- class names list of parents that should not be swallowed
+theme.child_filter_list    = { "Dragon" }        -- class names list that should not swallow their parents
+theme.swallowing_filter = true                   -- whether the filters above should be active
 ```
 
 ### Preview
diff --git a/module/window_swallowing.lua b/module/window_swallowing.lua
index 368541b..60950aa 100644
--- a/module/window_swallowing.lua
+++ b/module/window_swallowing.lua
@@ -11,53 +11,93 @@ local helpers = require(tostring(...):match(".*bling") .. ".helpers")
 local window_swallowing_activated = false
 
 -- you might want to add or remove applications here
-local dont_swallow_classname_list = beautiful.dont_swallow_classname_list
+local parent_filter_list = beautiful.parent_filter_list
+    or beautiful.dont_swallow_classname_list
     or { "firefox", "Gimp", "Google-chrome" }
-local activate_dont_swallow_filter = beautiful.dont_swallow_filter_activated
-    or true
+local child_filter_list = beautiful.child_filter_list
+    or beautiful.dont_swallow_classname_list or { }
 
--- checks if client classname matches with any entry of the dont-swallow-list
-local function check_if_swallow(c)
-    if not activate_dont_swallow_filter then
-        return true
-    end
-    for _, classname in ipairs(dont_swallow_classname_list) do
-        if classname == c.class then
-            return false
+-- for boolean values the or chain way to set the values breaks with 2 vars
+-- and always defaults to true so i had to do this to se the right value...
+local swallowing_filter = true
+local filter_vars = { beautiful.swallowing_filter, beautiful.dont_swallow_filter_activated }
+for _, var in pairs(filter_vars) do
+    swallowing_filter = var
+end
+
+-- check if element exist in table
+-- returns true if it is
+local function is_in_table(element, table)
+    local res = false
+    for _, value in pairs(table) do
+        if element:match(value) then
+            res = true
+            break
         end
     end
-    return true
+    return res
 end
 
+-- if the swallowing filter is active checks the child and parent classes
+-- against their filters
+local function check_swallow(parent, child)
+    local res = true
+    if swallowing_filter then
+        local prnt = not is_in_table(parent, parent_filter_list)
+        local chld = not is_in_table(child, child_filter_list)
+        res = ( prnt and chld )
+    end
+    return res
+end
+
+-- async function to get the parent's pid
+-- recieves a child process pid and a callback function
+-- parent_pid in format "init(1)---ancestorA(pidA)---ancestorB(pidB)...---process(pid)"
+function get_parent_pid(child_ppid, callback)
+    local ppid_cmd = string.format("pstree -A -p -s %s", child_ppid)
+    awful.spawn.easy_async(ppid_cmd, function(stdout, stderr, reason, exit_code)
+        -- primitive error checking
+        if stderr and stderr ~= "" then
+            callback(stderr)
+            return
+        end
+        local ppid = stdout
+        callback(nil, ppid)
+    end)
+end
+
+
 -- the function that will be connected to / disconnected from the spawn client signal
 local function manage_clientspawn(c)
     -- get the last focused window to check if it is a parent window
     local parent_client = awful.client.focus.history.get(c.screen, 1)
     if not parent_client then
         return
+    elseif parent_client.type == "dialog" or parent_client.type == "splash" then
+        return
     end
 
-    -- io.popen is normally discouraged. Should probably be changed
-    local handle = io.popen(
-        [[pstree -T -p -a -s ]]
-            .. tostring(c.pid)
-            .. [[ | sed '2q;d' | grep -o '[0-9]*$' | tr -d '\n']]
-    )
-    local parent_pid = handle:read("*a")
-    handle:close()
-
+    get_parent_pid(c.pid, function(err, ppid)
+        if err then
+            return
+        end
+        parent_pid = ppid
     if
-        (tostring(parent_pid) == tostring(parent_client.pid))
-        and check_if_swallow(c)
+        -- will search for "(parent_client.pid)" inside the parent_pid string
+        ( tostring(parent_pid):find("("..tostring(parent_client.pid)..")") )
+        and check_swallow(parent_client.class, c.class)
     then
         c:connect_signal("unmanage", function()
-            helpers.client.turn_on(parent_client)
-            helpers.client.sync(parent_client, c)
+            if parent_client then
+                helpers.client.turn_on(parent_client)
+                helpers.client.sync(parent_client, c)
+            end
         end)
 
         helpers.client.sync(c, parent_client)
         helpers.client.turn_off(parent_client)
     end
+    end)
 end
 
 -- without the following functions that module would be autoloaded by require("bling")