Fatal Error Cannot Redeclare

Did you copy the parent’s function.php file into the child theme?

I did. I now realize you can’t do that. The child theme’s functions.php should only contain new functions.

But I have a problem then. I am using the functions.php to create an additional sidebar. I just deleted everything in the functions.php except for this function. But I still get a similar error.

Here is the code in my child theme’s functions.php:

<?php

if ( ! function_exists( 'twentythirteen_widgets_init' ) ) {

function twentythirteen_widgets_init() {
	register_sidebar( array(
		'name'          => __( 'Main Widget Area', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'id'            => 'sidebar-1',
		'description'   => __( 'Appears in the footer section of the site.', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
		'after_widget'  => '</aside>',
		'before_title'  => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
		'after_title'   => '</h3>',
	) );

	register_sidebar( array(
		'name'          => __( 'Secondary Widget Area', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'id'            => 'sidebar-2',
		'description'   => __( 'Appears on posts and pages in the sidebar.', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
		'after_widget'  => '</aside>',
		'before_title'  => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
		'after_title'   => '</h3>',
	) );

	register_sidebar( array(
		'name'          => __( 'Third Widget Area', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'id'            => 'sidebar-3',
		'description'   => __( 'Is only for the front page.', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget widget-fp1">',
		'after_widget'  => '</aside>',
		'before_title'  => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
		'after_title'   => '</h3>',
	) );
}
}

?>

As you can see I just added a third sidebar. However I now get this fatal error message:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare twentythirteen_widgets_init() (previously declared in /home/content/20/11764620/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes/twentythirteen-child/functions.php:7) in /home/content/20/11764620/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes/twentythirteen/functions.php on line 245

From what I read, putting that conditional in the beginning should prevent the problem, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

You have to create a custom function to add a 3rd sidebar and then hook it using add_action( 'widgets_init', 'custom_function_name' );

Presto! Thanks.
My code now looks like this

<?php

function twentythirteenchild_widgets_init() {

	register_sidebar( array(
		'name'          => __( 'Third Widget Area', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'id'            => 'sidebar-3',
		'description'   => __( 'Is only for the front page.', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget widget-fp1">',
		'after_widget'  => '</aside>',
		'before_title'  => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
		'after_title'   => '</h3>',
	) );
}

add_action( 'widgets_init', 'twentythirteenchild_widgets_init' );

?>