I read an older post about this issue but it wouldn't let me reply. I cannot turn off the option to "Fetch items from children categories". I went into the categories settings but I'm not seeing what option there turns it off either. I thought Catalog mode to Yes would do it but evidently not.

I matched up 2 categories. One didn't have the child categories. So I matched all the settings and it's gone. The only problem now is I don't know which setting did it. lol

This setting (in the menu item) is used in multi-category menu items.
If you are using a single category in that menu item, you need to adjust the setting located in the category's settings.