auto selection nightmare

Everytime I select a layer in animate it auto selects every object in the layer. Not sure why this exists. Can I turn that on or off? I feel this way often using Adobe tools. I just want to change layers and then select a tool and use that tool in the layer. Photoshop had a nice shortcut control D or shift d with deselected everything. Now with the selection tool if I click on the background object ( or a space that should be empty in my selected layer) it then switches layers on me. Not sure why that exists. Can I turn that on or off?