A Function that has a return type of a parent class returning its child

[Too Explosive]

I have a parent class and want a function that returns an object that is a type of one of its children. Is this possible to do in C++? As of right now I have a function that tells what type needs to be returned than have different functions for each type and then each child class has its own function based on that type.

  Parent foo()
  {
     if (condition)
        return child1(); //Return an object of type child1
     return child2();    //Return an object of type child2
  }

On an aside, is it possible for a function in the parent class to call a function that is only present in the child class?

Thank you!

[kbw]

Is this possible to do in C++?

Yes. You need to use pointers for object oriented programming (as you do in every other language).

Parent* func()
{
    if (condition())
        return new child1();

    return new child2();
}

[Too Explosive]

That helped a lot! Thank you.
It did lead to one more problem though. I need it to call methods from the child class; however, when I try I get the error message that the function is not a member of the parent class. How would I make it look in the child class for the function instead? Again, thank you so much.