Hello Joan Friedlander,
Thank you so much for the theme purchased and using our premium theme. while switching theme from free to pro, you need to set some section again on the premium theme as well because of lots of additional features on the premium theme. Child Theme are specially developer for the developer. If you are not familiar with child theme, it’s not necessary to activate the child theme. You can activate the parent theme only. Please have a look here for more details about the child theme and it’s importance. https://www.acmethemes.com/blog/2016/07/child-themes-and-its-importance/
Let us know, if you have any further query.
Regards