Emit particles from a child object

Sorry for such an easy question, but I've been having a lot of trouble and the unity link that I though would answer my question seems to be not working.

I have a game object with child particle system attached. I'm trying to set it to emit particles when the parent object is clicked. I thought this would be fairly simple but I'm having trouble. Currently I have it working by finding the particle's game object and playing it that way, but isn't there a better way to trigger the attached particle effects? I was trying to use GetComponentsInChildren but I wasn't having much luck.

 private var SparkleParticles : GameObject;
 SparkleParticles = GameObject.Find("SparkleParticles");
 
 function OnMouseDown(){
         SparkleParticles.particleEmitter.emit = true;
           }