hide child categories

Since you don’t explain how you display those categories will direct you to the template tag, wp_dropdown_categories(), and the depth=1 argument.

the site is https://www.thesilvertongueonline.com, the categories are just drop downs and I want to prevent that from happening.

Then would guess you need the depth=1 argument added to the template tag, wp_list_categories(), or wp_dropdown_categories(). Look at your theme’s header.php for that.

Related:
Stepping Into Template Tags
Stepping Into Templates
Template Hierarchy