Highlight a list item without highlighting it's children (another UL) in jQuery

I'm trying to apply a hover effect to a UL, but the UL which is a child of one list item also gets the effect, which I don't want. I tried all sorts of things, for instance using the > sign and the .not() selector, but without succes.

Here's my (simplified) HTML:

        <ul id="menu">
            <li class="menubox"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
            <li class="menubox"><a href="#">Over Ons</a></li>
            <li class="menubox"><a href="#" id="varianten">Producten</a>
                <ul id="menu_varianten">
                    <li><a href="#">1</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">2</a></li>
                    <li><a href="#">3</a></li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li class="menubox"><a href="#">Forum</a></li>
        </ul>

Some snippets of CSS that might be relevant:

#menu {
position: relative;
width: 250px;
}

ul#menu{
list-style: none;
margin-left: 0;
padding-left: 0;
}

ul#menu li a{
display: block;
text-decoration: none;
height: 40px;
}

#menu_varianten{
list-style: none;
开发者_Python百科display: none;
margin-left: 0;
padding-left: 0;
}

ul#menu_varianten li a{
padding-left: 4em;
height:30px;
}

And here's the jQuery:

$("ul#menu > li").hover(
    function() {
        $(this).stop(true, true).animate({fontSize:"1.4em"}, 150);
    },
    function() {
        $(this).stop(true, true).animate({fontSize:"1.0em"}, 150);
    });

I also tried the selector ("ul#menu > li").not("#menu_varianten"), but it doesn't work unfortunately. Someone with ideas?

---

You can try only expanding the first anchor.

Leave your HTML and CSS as they are and change the javascript to:

$("ul#menu li").hover(

function() {
    $(this).find('a').first().stop(true, true).animate({
        fontSize: "1.4em"
    }, 150);
}, function() {
    $(this).find('a').first().stop(true, true).animate({
        fontSize: "1.0em"
    }, 150);
});

http://jsfiddle.net/RCtFU/1/

---

You may want to make each submenu a sibling of each parent. CSS inherits, so this would be a pretty simple avoidance of the problem.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/RCtFU/

<li class="menubox">
    <a href="#" id="varianten">Producten</a>
</li>
<li class="menubox">  <!-- probably want to change the class -->
    <ul id="menu_varianten">
        <li><a href="#">1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">3</a></li>
    </ul>
</li>

You'll need to do some further adjustments (different classes, etc.) to distinguish between menus and submenus.

---

You can use the css3 :not() selector:

$("ul#menu > li :not(ul)").hover(
function() {
    $(this).stop(true, true).animate({
        fontSize: "1.4em"
    }, 150);
}, function() {
    $(this).stop(true, true).animate({
        fontSize: "1.0em"
    }, 150);
});

See jsFiddle.