navigation bar parent elementselection

I was wondering. if when i use
wp_nav_menu( array( ‘depth’ => 3, ‘sort_column’ => ‘menu_order’, ‘container’ => ‘ul’, ‘menu_id’ => ‘main-nav’, ‘menu_class’ => ‘nav fl’, ‘theme_location’ => ‘primary-menu’ ) );

we all come out the same html.

if so, how could we use JQuery to select the li that is a parent??

because after the html i can’t seems to select the one.
—————–Output HTML—————-
<ul id=”main-nav” class=”nav fl”><li id=”menu-item-84″ class=”menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-84 parent”>User_home
<ul class=”sub-menu”>
<li id=”menu-item-83″ class=”menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-83″>User_message
<li id=”menu-item-86″ class=”menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-86 parent”>My_Home
<ul class=”sub-menu”>
<li id=”menu-item-88″ class=”menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-88″>[Photos]
<li id=”menu-item-89″ class=”menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-89″>[About]

——————————————–
————–Js—————————-
$(“.parent”).hover(
function () {
alert(“parent!”);
},
function () {

}
);
——————————————–

this does not work~~~~~ HELP~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~