diff --git a/tests/events/propagation.cpp b/tests/events/propagation.cpp
index 53441b75c7..9f4b05ffcb 100644
--- a/tests/events/propagation.cpp
+++ b/tests/events/propagation.cpp
@@ -540,11 +540,14 @@ void EventPropagationTestCase::DocView()
     wxDocument* const doc = docTemplate.CreateDocument("");
     wxView* const view = doc->GetFirstView();
 
-    wxScopedPtr<wxFrame>
+    wxScopedPtr<wxMDIChildFrame>
         child(new wxDocMDIChildFrame(doc, view, parent.get(), wxID_ANY, "Child"));
 
     wxMenu* const menuChild = CreateTestMenu(child.get());
 
+    // Ensure that the child that we've just created is the active one.
+    child->Activate();
+
 #ifdef __WXGTK__
     // There are a lot of hacks related to child frame menu bar handling in
     // wxGTK and, in particular, the code in src/gtk/mdi.cpp relies on getting