Title: child theme question
Last modified: September 1, 2016

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# child theme question

 *  [crystalm36](https://wordpress.org/support/users/crystalm36/)
 * (@crystalm36)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-question-16/)
 * If I don’t use a WordPress stocked template example twenty fourteen, if I use
   something different then do I have to still use a child theme?
    Thanks

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [ThemeSumo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/themesumo/)
 * (@themesumo)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-question-16/#post-7640512)
 * It’s only advised to use a [Child Theme](https://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes)
   if you’re making code modifications to the theme, this ensures your custom code
   is preserved should you update the main theme in the future.
 * Child Themes provide a really quick and easy way to edit any theme, if you dont
   intend on making any modifications to the theme then there is no need to use 
   a child theme at all.
 * You can also safely customize simple things like CSS using a plugin too.
 * [Simple Custom CSS](https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-custom-css/)
 * Hope this helps.
 *  Thread Starter [crystalm36](https://wordpress.org/support/users/crystalm36/)
 * (@crystalm36)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-question-16/#post-7640514)
 * Well this is the thing, I am trying to make an app using wordpress and the child
   theme doesn’t load correctly in the plugin that I am using to create the app.
   It works just fine using the original template. My hopes was to get this fixed
   but I am not having much luck getting the developer of the app fixing it. So 
   I figured I would try another theme that didn’t come with WordPress install. 
   I figured that when WordPress did an update to their cms then there is a chance
   that the stocked template may get updated as well and I would lose the changes
   I made. Is my thinking right or am I still not getting it?
 *  [frasermarlow](https://wordpress.org/support/users/frasermarlow/)
 * (@frasermarlow)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-question-16/#post-7640531)
 * Crystal,
    The core wordpress engine is the CMS, but when that gets updated, the
   Themes do not get updated along with it. So if you build on the Twenty Fifteen
   theme, next time WordPress updates you would still run your site on the same 
   Theme. Sometimes (separately from the WordPress core updates) Themes are also
   updated by the people who create them. At that point you can decide if you need
   to update the theme or not. Of course the Themes run on WordPress, so if you 
   are going to update the core CMS, then you probably want to keep your Themes 
   up to date as well, or you might run into some compatibility issues. A child 
   theme will not work in the absence of it’s parent theme. The child theme is just
   a collection of modifications to the parent theme that are managed separately
   so that you don’t have to tinker with the core theme itself. I hope this helps.
 *  Thread Starter [crystalm36](https://wordpress.org/support/users/crystalm36/)
 * (@crystalm36)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-question-16/#post-7640533)
 * Ok great! That answers my question. I thought that when I updated my wordpress
   that the twenty fourteen template would get updated along with it. So that eases
   my mind that it won’t. Thank you for all the good information!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘child theme question’ is closed to new replies.

 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [crystalm36](https://wordpress.org/support/users/crystalm36/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-question-16/#post-7640533)
 * Status: not resolved

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