C++ Pointers to objects (objects of a child class)

Question

Say I have a parent class and a child class (where the child class publicly inherited everything from the parent class). In some tutorials about polymorphism and virtual functions, they mention something similar to the code below:

Parent *ptr = childobj;

If the childobj is an object from the child class, does the above code imply:

ptr stores the address of childobj BUT if you use this pointer, you can only access/modify the 'traits' of childobj that was inherited from it's PARENT class? Not the other 'traits' or methods that are ONLY defined in the child class???

Answer 1

I believe it is like that... unless mommy's properties have a 'virtual' in front of them; in that case there should be a 'detour' to the stuff of the kid object.

(This is new for me too, if I am wrong, please correct me.)