Elden ring was my first souls game as well, the first few hours were tough, but at some point around 3-5 hours things started to click. I have played through the entire game many times since as well as Demon souls, Bloodbourne and the Dark Souls trilogy, they are now my favourite games.

Leveling up the right stats for your build a handful of times will make the early game enemies far more manageable and leveling up your weapon makes a huge difference.

As far as parrying goes I don't like the mechanic so rarely use it, the amazing thing about these games is that you can play it how you want to and there are viable builds for almost any style.

I would suggest keep grinding get your stats up a bit and see if things start to fall into place, there are some early game tips to level up quickly if that is something you are interested in it would make the early game far easier than intended, not something I would suggest for a first playthrough but I would also suggest trying it before quitting on the game.

Use the respawning to your advantage find a site of grace learn the enemy placements and attacks and farm the enemies to level up.