Updating theme when using child theme

Hi there,
I see there’s a theme update available and I’d like to update (mainly so that the Visual Composer will function properly with the most recent version of WordPress). When I read the instructions, it says to deactivate the Wildster theme so that I can delete and upload the new version’s zip file. I made all my customizations in theme settings area of the child theme (which is currently the active theme). The documentation says to deactivate the Wildster theme, but it doesn’t mention what to do if you’ve got the child theme activated. Do I need to deactivate the child theme to reinstall the new updated version of the parent theme? I was hoping I could just upload the new parent zip and leave the old child theme untouched so that I won’t lose any of the already-established theme settings.

Thanks!
Leighann