Hey @seth.griffin and @ryparken,
Put together a quick demo for y’all that may help. I deal with this everyday in the 2 enterprise apps I have built on Bubble.
Bubble shines in this area of relational data 
Here’s the app:
And here’s the editor: (I think anyone can view it?)
@ryparken More specifically to your forum post, you have to delete from the bottom up. In my example, when you delete a parent, I first delete the great grandchildren (if they exist), then move to the grandchildren (if they exist), then to the children (if they exist), and finally the parent.
If it is created right from the start, it should be as smooth as that.
Note that the performance is still pretty good - And from a relational standpoint, it’s fantastic.
I hope this helps y’all - Took me a while to get to this point.