diff --git a/simple_parsing/wrappers/dataclass_wrapper.py b/simple_parsing/wrappers/dataclass_wrapper.py
index 2c00c98d..fdcbc574 100644
--- a/simple_parsing/wrappers/dataclass_wrapper.py
+++ b/simple_parsing/wrappers/dataclass_wrapper.py
@@ -264,8 +264,15 @@ def defaults(self) -> list[DataclassT | dict[str, Any] | None | Literal[argparse
             self._defaults = []
             for default in self.parent.defaults:
                 if default not in (None, argparse.SUPPRESS):
-                    default = getattr(default, self.name)
-                self._defaults.append(default)
+                    # we need to check here if the default has been provided.  
+                    # If not we'll use the default_value option function
+                    if hasattr(default, self.name):
+                        default = getattr(default, self.name)
+                    else:
+                        default = utils.default_value(self._field)
+                    if default is MISSING:
+                        continue
+                    self._defaults.append(default)
         else:
             default_field_value = utils.default_value(self._field)
             if default_field_value is MISSING:
diff --git a/simple_parsing/wrappers/field_wrapper.py b/simple_parsing/wrappers/field_wrapper.py
index 0becac2b..362e6f65 100644
--- a/simple_parsing/wrappers/field_wrapper.py
+++ b/simple_parsing/wrappers/field_wrapper.py
@@ -1030,7 +1030,12 @@ def add_subparsers(self, parser: ArgumentParser):
             # Just for typing correctness, as we didn't explicitly change
             # the return type of subparsers.add_parser method.)
             subparser = cast("ArgumentParser", subparser)
-            subparser.add_arguments(dataclass_type, dest=self.dest)
+            # we need to propagate the defaults down to the sub dataclass if they've been set.
+            # there may need to be some error handling here in case the use has specified the wrong values for the default.
+            if isinstance(self.default, dict) and self.default.get(subcommand, None) is not None:
+                subparser.add_arguments(dataclass_type, dest=self.dest, default=dataclass_type(**self.default[subcommand]))
+            else:
+                subparser.add_arguments(dataclass_type, dest=self.dest)
 
     def equivalent_argparse_code(self):
         arg_options = self.arg_options.copy()