Omit posts from category with a certain tag

I have a site with category structure
parent
-child 1
-child 2
-child 3

I want to have a sticky post at the top of each category.
so sticky1 is in parent category
stickychild 1 is in child 1 category (and parent as its a child)
stickychild 2 is in child 2 category (and parent as its a child)
stickychild 3 is in child 3 category (and parent as its a child)

I do not want stickychild 1, 2 or 3 to show up in the parent category. I tried putting them all in a “sticky” category and excluding that from the query, but they still presented, presumably because they are in the parent category.

I thought about giving them a tag and excluding them from a category that way, but cant find any detail on how to achieve that.

Any ideas on excluding them from the category page?
Thanks