get all children of a django instance

get_children.py

"""
Given a Django model instance, get all of its children.
"""
__author__ = 'Ori Livneh'
__email__ = 'ori.livneh@gmail.com'

from django.core.exceptions import ObjectDoesNotExist

def get_children(instance):
    related = instance._meta.get_all_related_objects()
    model = type(instance)
    varnames = (rel.var_name for rel in related if 
                issubclass(rel.model, model))
    children = []
    for var in varnames:
        try:
            children.append(getattr(instance, var))
        except ObjectDoesNotExist:
            pass
    return children