Every once in a while, IÔÇÖll run across a site running on the Genesis Framework. Actually, itÔÇÖs more than every once in a while, but what do you expect when so many people use Genesis?!
Anyway, sometimes IÔÇÖll visit a site running Genesis and notice that theyÔÇÖre running Genesis as the active theme, instead of using a child theme. I canÔÇÖt help but shake my head when I see this, because not only is this incredibly risky, but we strongly recommend that you DO NOT run Genesis as the active theme on any site.
Why not? There are several reasons, actually …
A child theme allows you to customize
When you read a tutorial for adding or removing things from your site output, itÔÇÖs likely that the tutorial will say something like ÔÇ£put this code in your child themeÔÇÖs functions.php file.ÔÇØ ItÔÇÖs hard to do that when youÔÇÖre not running a child theme.
Also, child themes allow you to run and manage your own CSS file. 100% custom, if you want. You can make your site look exactly how you want it to look, or use one of the dozens of child themes we sell here at StudioPress.
The point is that youÔÇÖre going to have a very difficult time customizing GenesisÔÇöand your siteÔÇöif you don’t use a child theme.
A child theme protects your customizations
Once youre done customizing your site, you want to protect all that hard work from being overwritten when we release an update to Genesis  and were always updating Genesis.
Even when weÔÇÖre not in an active development cycle, weÔÇÖre still pushing updates to Genesis and preparing maintenance releases. And if we decide to change things in the default Genesis CSS, you want to be sure that your site design stays intact.
A child theme keeps all your custom code and CSS safely in its own folder, so Genesis can be updated without affecting the look of your site.
Your site will show an error if you activate Genesis
If you activate Genesis directly, we now show a warning on your dashboard that advises you to use a child theme.
Do you really want to stare at that warning every time you log in to your site? Of course not!
So, go get yourself a beautiful child theme and get rid of that warning for good!
ItÔÇÖs just good practice
This boils down to separating the core functionality of the Genesis Framework from the specific customizations and design of your site.
Let the framework be a framework.
And let your creativity and custom code stay where it should stay  safely housed in a child theme.
Should I @import the Genesis style.css
WeÔÇÖve gotten this question many times over the years, and we answer the same every time …
No.
Genesis is not a CSS framework. And over time, the Genesis stylesheet has changed a lot. If youÔÇÖre dynamically using the Genesis CSS as the base for your siteÔÇÖs CSS, sooner or later the design of your site is going to break.
Always start with a fresh stylesheet in your child theme. Not only will this perform better, but it will keep all your CSS safe from any changes we make in Genesis.
ÔÇö
There’s really no reason not to use a child theme. I mean just look at all this beauty waiting for you over at StudioPress.
This blog was originally posted on Studiopress.com This post is in no way associated with Kembel.ca. For more posts by this author, please click here.