How to have tpl for parent but not child? I want to override the template for just /user/ but not for /user/edit or user/anythingelse. Is there a way to do that?

For example, I made a page--user.tpl.php but it effects all of user's children.
You are editing in wrong template file. You have to make theme changes in user-profile.tpl.php.

For theme hook suggestions:

function themeName_preprocess_page(&amp;$vars, $hook) {
  // Go to user page.

  // Requires devel module.
  dpm($vars['theme_hook_suggestions']);
}



There is a list of theme hooks in this page
Theme implementations is Drupal 7