diff --git a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/Supervisor.scala b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/Supervisor.scala
index 6c438f1776..a956c2d090 100644
--- a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/Supervisor.scala
+++ b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/Supervisor.scala
@@ -7,4 +7,5 @@ class Supervisor extends Actor {
   def receive = {
     case x: Props ⇒ sender ! context.actorOf(x)
   }
+  override def preRestart(cause: Throwable, msg: Option[Any]) {}
 }
diff --git a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorHierarchySpec.scala b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorHierarchySpec.scala
index dc45d012fd..3b9ebbad73 100644
--- a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorHierarchySpec.scala
+++ b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorHierarchySpec.scala
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ object SupervisorHierarchySpec {
     protected def receive = {
       case p: Props ⇒ sender ! context.actorOf(p)
     }
+    override def preRestart(cause: Throwable, msg: Option[Any]) {}
     override def postRestart(reason: Throwable) = {
       countDown.countDown()
     }
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/Actor.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/Actor.scala
index ffb941408a..4c8877463c 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/Actor.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/Actor.scala
@@ -262,9 +262,12 @@ trait Actor {
    * <p/>
    * Is called on a crashed Actor right BEFORE it is restarted to allow clean
    * up of resources before Actor is terminated.
-   * By default it calls postStop()
+   * By default it disposes of all children calls postStop().
    */
-  def preRestart(reason: Throwable, message: Option[Any]) { postStop() }
+  def preRestart(reason: Throwable, message: Option[Any]) {
+    context.children foreach (context.stop(_))
+    postStop()
+  }
 
   /**
    * User overridable callback.
diff --git a/akka-docs/general/supervision.rst b/akka-docs/general/supervision.rst
index 0867d931f8..74c95abfc5 100644
--- a/akka-docs/general/supervision.rst
+++ b/akka-docs/general/supervision.rst
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@ which explains the existence of the fourth choice (as a supervisor also is
 subordinate to another supervisor higher up) and has implications on the first
 three: resuming an actor resumes all its subordinates, restarting an actor
 entails restarting all its subordinates, similarly stopping an actor will also
-stop all its subordinates.
+stop all its subordinates. It should be noted that the default behavior of an
+actor is to stop all its children before restarting, but this can be overridden
+using the :meth:`preRestart` hook.
 
 Each supervisor is configured with a function translating all possible failure
 causes (i.e. exceptions) into one of the four choices given above; notably,
@@ -69,14 +71,12 @@ that the restart is not visible outside of the actor itself with the notable
 exception that the message during which the failure occurred is not
 re-processed.
 
-Restarting an actor in this way recursively restarts all its children in the
-same fashion, whereby all parent–child relationships are kept intact. If this
-is not the right approach for certain sub-trees of the supervision hierarchy,
-you should choose to stop the failed actor instead, which will terminate all
-its children recursively, after which that part of the system may be recreated
-from scratch. The second part of this action may be implemented using the
-lifecycle monitoring described next or using lifecycle callbacks as described
-in :class:`Actor`.
+Restarting an actor in this way recursively terminates all its children. If 
+this is not the right approach for certain sub-trees of the supervision 
+hierarchy, you may choose to retain the children, in which case they will be 
+recursively restarted in the same fashion as the failed parent (with the same 
+default to terminate children, which must be overridden on a per-actor basis, 
+see :class:`Actor` for details).
 
 What Lifecycle Monitoring Means
 -------------------------------