Changing parent without changing absolute global position?

[The SundanceKid]

Hi,

I'm trying to set an object's parent without changing its global absolute position.

Whenever I set the object's parent, its position resets to [0, 0, 0] on its parent's relative coordinate system (its position becomes the same as its parents position).

How do I get around this? I have tried many things, such as finding the object's position on the absolute global coordinate system, setting the object's parent, and then setting the object's position back to the one I found earlier. This doesn't seem to work.

Another seemingly easy way to do this would be to find the object's position relative to its soon-to-be parent's position, but I can't do this because they are not in the same hierarchy—I have to subtract both positions on the absolute global coordinate system. Then, of course, I set the object's parent and move it back to the correct position that I just went through the work of finding.

All of these ways don't work.

How do I set and object's parent without changing it's global position?