Win32 C++ - Child Windows

Working on a Win32 C++ (non-MFC) application and I've run into an issue that I can work around but from reading the MSDN documentation I shouldn't have to do this. I'm under the impression that a child window

for example:

CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_CHIENTEDGE, TEXT("LISTBOX"), TEXT("DEVICES"), WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | ... 10,10 mainWindowHandle, (HMENU)IDC_DEVICELISTBOX, mainWindowInstance, NULL)
should pass all messages to its parent message queue and should be processed in its parent's WndProc callback message? This does not function like this in my application so I have to use "GetWindowLong" and "SetWindowLong" to define a callback message for each control child ********

I've seen a lot of examples but I'm still not clear if my application is working as expected or if I'm just stressing out over nothing. Thanks for any help in advance.