Animate Containers Nesting

I'm learning to use containers. I have the body of the character, the arms of the character, and a table in front of them. If I want the arms on top of the table, but the body behind the table, what is the best way to do this?

Best I've come up with is that I would make a body container, then put the table and arms over that- but then the issue I have is syncing up the body and the arms to move at the same time.

I am aware of the parenting feature, but I have actively had so many issues with parenting, not limiting to just straight up deleting the asset, so I'd rather not use parenting.

Let me know what works best please.

-Ginger