diff --git a/libs/canvas/container.cc b/libs/canvas/container.cc
index d9596a67a0..b6b00d0de1 100644
--- a/libs/canvas/container.cc
+++ b/libs/canvas/container.cc
@@ -74,6 +74,6 @@ void
 Container::compute_bounding_box () const
 {
 	_bounding_box = Rect ();
-	add_child_bounding_boxes ();
-	_bounding_box_dirty = false;
+	/* nothing to do here; Item::bounding_box() will add all children for us */
+	bb_clean ();
 }