Choose the right place for a change
A child theme extends a parent without editing its files directly. List the files you need to change; for layout or color adjustments, first check whether the existing editor settings are sufficient. Consider placing business functionality in a plugin so a later theme switch does not remove it.
Check the parent and stylesheets
The Template header in the child style.css must match the parent theme folder exactly. Stylesheet loading depends on the parent, so a single enqueue snippet is not universal. Do not copy the entire parent functions.php into the child: both files load, and duplicate function names can fail.
Verify an update in a copy
Keep the original version and a recovery path. Update the parent on a staging copy, then check navigation, articles, search, forms and checkout. A child theme separates customizations but does not guarantee that every old override stays compatible. Maintain an inventory of overridden files.
