Eric,

Relations are suspended when the source work area is not the currently selected work area. For example;

* assume customer and order as parent child work areas

select customer
set relation to custid into order
locate
* all is well with the relation

select order
skip
* the relation is not in effect now because customer is not the current work 
* area

select customer
* on the worng record because the pointer was not moved

select order
goto bottom in customer
* order pinter does not move because customer is not the current work area

You need to be sure that your code reestablishes the order as the currently selected work area after you do your update.