swing mouse listeners being intercepted by child components

For example

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import javax.swing.*;

public class TestMouseListener {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final JComboBox combo = new JComboBox();
        combo.setEditable(true);
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
            combo.addItem(i);
        }
        final JLabel tip = new JLabel();
        tip.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 20));
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(combo);
        panel.add(tip);
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.add(panel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
        panel.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {

            @Override
            public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
                tip.setText("Outside combobox");
            }

            @Override
            public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
                Component c = SwingUtilities.getDeepestComponentAt(
                   e.getComponent(), e.getX(), e.getY());
                // doesn't work if you move your mouse into the combobox popup
                tip.setText(c != null && SwingUtilities.isDescendingFrom(
                   c, combo) ? "Inside combo box" : "Outside combobox");
            }
        });
    }

    private TestMouseListener() {
    }
}

Check out the docs and examples for the "glass pane".
This should give you what you need: The Glass Pane